1 Cinira Johnson January 15, 2014 Transmission Factor Calculation

Block Tray transmission Factor Calculation

Objectives: To demonstrate the effect of the transmission factor in dose calculation and to verify through experiment the transmission factor while delivering radiation photon beams. Purposes: Radiation treatment machines are all calibrated under certain conditions.1 In order to customize treatment plans to accommodate for an optimum treatment outcome, dose calculation will accommodate variables from the calibration parameters. Sometimes blocks are used in radiation treatment fields. These blocks are mounted in supporting tray systems. Block trays, just like wedges,2 have a small attenuation effect on the radiation beam. This attenuation has to be accounted for while calculating dose for that particular field. There is a general Transmission Factor formula and from this formula a Tray Factor Formula, they are listed below:

Transmission Factor = Dose with the object in the beam path Dose without the object in the beam path

Block Tray Transmission Factor = Dose with the block tray in the beam path Dose without the block tray in the beam path

Methods and Material: The experiment was done on a True Beam Varian Linear Accelerator using a Sun Nuclear Daily QA 3 Dose Measurement Device. Two energies were used: 6MV and 15MV, three measurements were taken from each energy with and without the block tray in the path of the field. Please see the figures 1-4 of the experiment setup below.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Results: After delivering 100 MUs 3 times for 6MV and 15 MV, the results are presented in table 1. The average of the data collected is demonstrated below in Table 2. With this average, the block tray transmission factor formula was used to find the transmission factor for the block tray (Table 3).

Energy

Reading without the Block Tray 94.0

Reading with the Block Tray

87.53 87.63 87.32

6MV

93.88 94.02

91.41 15MV 91.36 91.40 Table 1

86.50 86.66 86.55

Energy

Reading without Blocking Tray

Reading with Blocking Tray

6MV

(94.0+93.88+94.02)/3= 93.96

(91.41+91.36+91.40)/3= 91.39

15MV Table 2

(87.53+87.63+87.32)/3= 87.49 (86.50+86.66+86.55)/3= 86.57

Energy

Reading with Tray Reading without Tray

Transmission Factor

6MV

91.39 93.96

0.972

15MV

86.57 87.49

0.989

Table 3

Discussion: As demonstrated above the transmission factor for a 6MV beam is 0.972 and for a 15MV beam is 0.989. The difference in attenuation is due to the difference in energy used in this experiment. Higher energy photon beams will attenuate less than lower energy photon beams. The 15MV beam attenuate 2% while the 6 MV beam attenuates 3%.

Clinical Application: At University of Colorado Hospital, 3 Mantle treatment fields have PA fields with cerrobend block blocking the oral cavity because of the divergence of the beam. At this particular experiment a mantle treatment with 2 AP fields and 2 PA fields was used for didactic purposes. The 2 PA fields have a block in place. The clinical application of the block tray transmission factor is only applied by the dose calculation treatment planning system (figure 5-6) but not by the RadCalc (monitor units check software) as seen in figure 7.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

9 Conclusion: Figure 7 compares the planning treatment system calculations with the tray factor applied in the calculation and the RadCalc monitor unit calculation done without the tray factor. It is clear that the difference in percentage in monitor units calculation is more prominent in the PA fields compared to the AP field. This happens because the AP fields dont have a block. Since the PA fields have blocks and one calculation was done with the tray factor and the other one without, the tray factor difference in dose calculation is higher compared to the AP fields. It is important to highlight the difference in MUs from one plan to the other.

References
1

Discussion with John Lucido, Medical Physicist Student at the University of Colorado Bentel GC. Dose calculation for external beams part II. In: Bentel GC, ed. Radiation Therapy Discussion with Scott Stoehr, Medical Dosimetrist at the University of Colorado Hospitals

Hospitals Cancer Center. January 21, 2014.

2

Planning. 2nd. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; 1996:49-50.

3

Cancer Center. January 22, 2014.