Estimation of the dose delivered to critical organs outside the radiation beams of a Mevatron MX6700 and a Mevatron KDS

The radiation dose received outside collimated radiation is named peripheral dose. The peripheral radiation dose is especially important from a clinical point of view, when some critical organs as eye-lens or gonads are near the target volume,thus generating potential cataract formation, or gonadal disfunction. Accurate prediction of the peripheral dose distribution can also be used in retrospective studies to evaluate possible correlation between radiotherapy dose and secondary cancer incidence in tissues external to the treatment field. The main objective of the present work was the measurement of peripheral dose produced in Siemens Mevatron MX6700 (6 MV) and a Siemens Mevatron KDS (6 and 18 MV linear accelerators. Measurement techniques include the use of a ionization chamber and thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) in simple polystyrene phantoms and anthropomorphic phantoms. To obtain high accuracy in the measurements 3 dosemeters were placed in every analyzed point and 10 TLD were situated at the reference point. In addition, an individual calibration factor was used in the dose determination. Doses received in eye-lens, hypophysis, thyroid breast, uterus and gonads, during typical neoplasia treatments as breast neoplasia, head and neck tumour, lung or pelvis tumour and lymphomas are reported. 1 tab.; 1 ref. (author)