Polystyrene and Water as Soft Tissue Substitutes in

Radiotherapy Dose Calculations:

A Monte Carlo based Inter-Comparison

By
Ambreen Aslam
M.Phil. Physics 4th Semester
University Of Agriculture , Faisalabad

Cancer
In Pakistan cancer is among the major causes of death. Various
factors are causing a massive cancer, such as :
Increased Population
Excessive use of Tobacco
Unhealthy Diet

Pakistan Cancer Rank by Type (WHO

2010)
#

Type of Cancer

Rate

World

Type of Cancer

Rate

Rank

World
Rank

Breast

19.33

58

Bladder

2.86

80

Oral

9.40

10

10

Liver

2.69

172

Lung

7.81

121

11

Prostate

2.53

164

Stomach

6.66

97

12

Ovary

2.36

81

Cervical

6.56

78

13

Other Neoplasms

1.57

147

Esophagus

6.17

42

14

Pancreas

0.90

172

Lymphomas

4.85

106

15

Uterine

0.51

142

Colon-Rectum

4.08

149

16

Skin

0.31

170

Treatment Types
Common cancer treatment types include :
Chemotherapy
Radiotherapy
Targeted Therapy
Photo-dynamic Therapy
where Radiation therapy or radiotherapy is the most common
treatment of cancer, it uses high-energy particles to destroy or
damage cancer cells. It is most effective treatment of cancer
either by itself or along with other forms of treatment.

Cancer Treatment using

Radiotherapy

Phantoms
Phantoms are models of the human body/organs used
in computerized analysis.
Phantoms are designed to improve the accuracy of
treatment plan verification in radiosurgery and
radiotherapy.
They allow 3D dose verifications and estimate the most
probable dose distributions showing their response for
different beam energies on numerous tissue and bone
equivalent materials.

The CIRS Radiosurgery Head

Phantom

Monte Carlo Technique

To simulate radiation transport in radiotherapy
Monte Carlo techniques are used widely and are
proved to be most effective.
Monte Carlo techniques are based upon sampling
the random numbers.
These techniques are being used from last fifty
years and there are commercial treatments planning
systems employing Monte Carlo codes.

EGSnrc
EGS (Electron Gamma Shower) is a software tool
developed by NRCC (National Research Council
Canada)
It is designed to meet users specific requirements
relating to modeling the paths of electrons and photons
during their transport through matter.
EGSnrc relies on Monte Carlo for its calculations.
EGSnrc is used to answer a lot of questions about the
propagation of radiation in materials.

Sub Codes of EGSnrc

DOSXYZn
rc
(Phanto
m Design
and
modeling
)

BEAMnrc
(LINAC
head
Modeling
)
other
subcodes

The EGSnrc Code

System

BEAMnrc
The BEAMnrc code was designed to simulate radiation beams
emerging from any radiation source like Co-60 (Cobalt-60)
and low energy x-rays.
this EGSnrc sub-code is also capable of simulating beams of
photons and electrons from Linear Accelerators (LINACs).
This code was written in MORTRAN3, which is a
preprocessor for FORTRAN77.

DOSXYZnrc
DOSXYZnrc is another EGSnrc sub-code which is
specifically designed to calculate dose distributions in a
sharply definable phantom geometry.
DOSXYZnrc is a part of OMEGA project for developing a
system of codes at NRCC.
Any type of beam can be incident on the phantom, including
the full phase space file from the BEAMnrc code.

Objectives
Dose calculation for Soft Tissue, PMMA, Polystyrene
homogeneous phantom at 6 MV and 10 MV beam energies and
at several depths inside 151545 cm3 phantom with field sizes
55 cm2 and 1010 cm2.
Calculating PDDs and lateral Dose profiles for all the phantom
materials used.
Comparison of all other phantom results with ST phantom
results to determine best ST substitute among these.

Project Methodology

Phantom Materials
Phantom
Material

Zeff

Mass attenuation
coefficient
(m2/kg)

Mass energy
absorption
coefficient
(m2/kg)

6(0.111000)

2.7410-3 (6 MV)

1.7810-3 (6 MV)

7(0.026000)

2.1910-3 (10 MV)

1.5410-3(10 MV)

1(0.077418)

2.6210-3 (6 MV)

1.7010-3(6 MV)

6(0.922582)

2.0610-3( 10 MV)

1.4410-3(10 MV)

2.6510-3 (6 MV)

1.7210-3(6 MV)

2.10510-3 (10 MV)

1.4810-3(10 MV)

1(0.111894)

2.7710-3(6 MV)

1.8010-3(6 MV)

8(0.888106)

2.21910 (10 MV)

1.5610 (10 MV)

Composition
Z (fraction by weight)

Electron
Density
(e/g)

1(0.101172)

Soft Tissue

7.64

3.321023

8(0.7618283)

Polystyrene

5.74

1(0.080538)

PMMA

6.56

6(0.599848)
8(0.319614)

Water

7.51

-3

-3

3.231023

3.241023

3.341023

Project Parameters
Beam Energies

6MV, 10MV

Phantom
Dimensions

151545 cm3

Voxel size

0.5 cm3

Field Sizes

55 cm2 , 1010 cm2

# of Histories

1.5 billion

Calculations

PDDs, Profiles

Phantom Dimensions

Results
1. Comparisons of PDDs for Soft Tissue Equivalence of
PMMA

2. Comparisons of PDDs for Soft Tissue Equivalence of

Polystyrene

3. Comparisons of PDDs for Soft Tissue Equivalence of Water

Mean % Difference for Different ST equivalent

Materials (Post-Buildup Region)

Mean % Error for Different ST equivalent Materials

(Post-Buildup Region)

Conclusions
For 6 MV smaller field size is better, and for 10 MV larger
field size is more useful for substitution of these materials as
Soft Tissue Equivalent.
The composition and other properties of a material should be
close to those of reference material in order to become
equivalent or substitute.
Water is most Soft Tissue equivalent Material among all other
tested phantoms.

Future Recommendations
No larger field sizes for input beams were tried for this work,
it can also be evaluated for 1515 cm2, 2020 cm2, 2525 cm2
and 3030 cm2.
Other photon beam energies such as Co-60 and 12 MV, 20
MV, 24 MV etc. can also be used for the current work.
Other phantom materials that have composition closer to Soft
Tissue and Water such as Solid Water, Plastic Water etc can
also be evaluated for substitution purposes.

Thank You !