Monte Carlo simulation of photon breast radiotherapy of the pregnant patient beam characteristics

Faj, Dario; Brkic, Hrvoje; Kopacin, Vjekoslav; Majer, Marija; Knežević, Željka; Maric, Svjetlana; Kasabasic, Mladen (2024) Monte Carlo simulation of photon breast radiotherapy of the pregnant patient beam characteristics. Nuclear Technology and Radiation Protection, 39 (2). pp. 154-159. ISSN 1451-3994

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Abstract

This paper aims to describe the photon beam characteristics in terms of energy and angular distribution during breast megavoltage photon radiotherapy of pregnant patients. Photon beam characteristics are investigated at treatment volume (breast) and at position of the fetus in the Tena phantom using Monte Carlo simulation. Photon beam energy spectra are compared in different materials used as substitutes for building physical and computational phantoms. Mean energies calculated in substitute materials developed by our group and used to build Tena phantom, differ up to 10 % from the calculated ones in ICRU reference tissue materials. It was found acceptable since this is less than differences found between ICRP and ICRU materials. Then, the photon beam characteristics are investigated in anthropomorphic phantom, Tena. Photon beam mean energy in the fetal region of the phantom (out-of-field) is significantly lower (more than 1 MeV) than at the breast position (in-field). Photon beam angular distribution at breast position shows preferably forward direction, while at the position of the fetus angular distribution is more scattered. Differences in photon energy and angular distributions between in-field and out-of-field points of measurement need to be considered when choosing the detector to decrease measurement uncertainties and obtain reliable measurement data.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	megavolt photon beam radiotherapy; Monte Carlo; beam characteristics; out-of-field pregnant patient
Subjects:	NATURAL SCIENCES > Physics > Biophysics and Medical Physics NATURAL SCIENCES > Interdisciplinary Natural Sciences > Radiation Science
Divisions:	Division of Materials Chemistry
Projects:	Project title Project leader Project code Project type Towards Safe, Optimized and persoNalized radiOlogy and RAdiotherapy procedures for pregnant patients UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED EU Procjena doze zračenja pri radioterapiji karcinoma dojke kod trudnica Hrvoje Brkić FDMZ - IP3 UNSPECIFIED Izrada antropomorfnog fantoma trudnice u trećem trimestru trudnoće Dario Faj UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User:	Željka Knežević Medija
Date Deposited:	19 Dec 2025 06:48
URI:	http://fulir.irb.hr/id/eprint/10327
DOI:	10.2298/NTRP2402154F

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