Assessment the Photo-neutron Contamination of IMRT and 3D-Conformal Techniques Using Thermo-luminescent Dosimeter (TLD)

The aim of the study is to evaluate the dependence of photo-neutron production on field size, depth in phantom and distance from isocenter and also to calculate the equivalent neutron doses for PTV and OARs of IMRT and 3DCRT techniques using TLD (600/700).The Linac Siemens Oncor installed at Nasser Institute, Cairo, Egypt. TLDs, Neutron Monitor, Ionization chamber were provided by NIS, the duration of the study was from November 2017 to July 2018. 5 prostate cancer cases were selected treated with high energy beam (15MV) Linear accelerator using 3DCRT and IMRT treatment plans. The OARs were bladder, rectum and femur. Once the plans were completed, there were copied from the planning system onto the RW3 slab phantom in which pairs of TLD chips (600/700) were placed at the exact site of PTV and OARs. The results showed that: The measured photo-neutron decreases from 0.2 mSv/Gy to 0.09 mSv/Gy as increases field sizes from 2x2 cm2 to 20x20 cm2. The measured photo-neutron was maximum at dmax =0.15 mSv/Gy and decreases gradually as increases the depth in phantom reaches to 0.07 mSv/Gy at 10cm depth in phantom. The measured photo-neutron decreases from 1.5 mSv/Gy to 0.02 mSv/Gy when measured at isocenter and at 100cm along the patient couch. Using 3DCRT for PTV and OARs were ranging from 0.027 to 0.39 mSv per photon Gy and for IMRT were 0.135 to 2.34 mSv per photon Gy. In conclusion the photo-neutron production is decreases as increases field size and distance from isocenter along patient couch while increases with depth in phantom up to dmax and decreases gradually as increases depth in phantom. IMRT requires longer beam-on time than 3DCRT leading to worse OARs sparing and increase the production of photo-neutrons than 3DCRT.