Monte Carlo simulation of Varian Linac for 6 MV photon beam with BEAMnrc code

Highlights: • A new cross section data was created and integrated into BEAMnrc and DOSXYZnrc codes. • A parallel simulations were run with SGE queuing system. • The electron beam parameters have been determined using a new cross section data and a suggested method to tune beam width has been validated. - Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the initial electron beam parameters on the absorbed dose distribution calculated with EGSnrc Monte Carlo code, for 6 MV photon beam. A proposed methodology for benchmarking the BEAMnrc model of Varian Linac has been used. Also, a new photon cross section data based on ENDF/B-VII release 8 evaluation has been employed. The parameters tested include mean energy, radial intensity distribution and angular spread of the initial electron beam. Mean energy and angular spread were tested for a square irradiation field 10 × 10 cm², whereas beam width of the electron beam was studied for 10 × 10 cm² at different depths and 30 × 30 cm² at depth of 10 cm. The results obtained are compared with measurement data to select the optimal electron beam parameters. The differences between MC calculation and measurements data are analyzed using gamma index criteria which fixed within 1% −1 mm accuracy. The obtained results indicated that the depth-dose and dose-profile curves were considerably influenced by the mean energy of the electron beam. The depth-dose curves were unaffected by the beam width of the electron beam, for both irradiation fields. On the contrary, lateral dose-profile curves were affected by the beam width of initial electron beam. Both dose-profile and depth-dose curves were unaffected to the angular spread of the electron beam. A deep depth of 10 × 10 cm² is very accurate to tune the beam width. Mean energy and beam width must be tuned precisely, to get the MC does distribution with acceptable accuracy.