Development of a head phantom to be used for quality control in stereotactic radiosurgery

It was designed and developed a geometric acrylic head phantom (GHP) for Quality Assurance (QA) in Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS). Inside the phantom there are inserts that are able to accommodate acrylic targets representing the tumor tissue and organ at risk in the region cranial brain, the brain stem. The tumor tissue is represented by two semi-spheres of acrylic with a diameter of 13.0 mm and cavities in the central region for accommodation of a TLD-100 detector and a small radiochromic EBT Gafchromic filmstrip. The brain stem is represented by the two parts of acrylic cylinder with a diameter 18.0 mm, 38.0 mm length and cavities along the central region to accommodate the 5 detectors TLD-100 and yet another of EBT film. The distance tumor - brain stem is 2.0 mm. The experimental setup was filled with water, attached to the stereotactic frame to determine the coordinates of the target and underwent computed tomography (CT). Cf images were transferred to the SRS planning system BrainLab (BrainScan). The contours of the lesion and organ at risk were delineated and, through the technique of multiple circular arcs, the planning was conduced with five arches, one isocenter and a collimator of 17.5 mm from the combination between the table and gantry . The dose delivered to the isocenter of the lesion was 3.0 Gy and the total coverage of tumor volume corresponds to the 75% isodose. This experimental arrangement is subjected to radiosurgery treatment, after which the dosimeters are evaluated and their responses compared with the values of planned doses. The linear accelerator used was a Varian CLlNAC 2300 CID, photon beam of 6 MV, installed at the National Cancer Institute (INCA). For verification of dose distributions in 3D, the films were irradiated in three planes: sagittal, caronal and axial. The .films were scanned and digitized on a scanner Microtek ScanMaker 9800XL model. The dose distributions in irradiated films were compared with the distributions of doses provided by the planning system through the software PTW VeriSoft gamma index method. The results were obtained with TLD agree with planned dose values within the limits of acceptance. For EBT Gafchromics films, in ali treatment plans, there was agreement between the doses values and isodoses, measured planned, within the tolerance limits for SRS (+- 5% of the administered dose in the isocenter of the lesion and ± 1,0 mm spatial deviation), showing that the method used is adequate to ensure the quality of the radiosurgery treatment. (author)