Neutron production in radiotherapy treatment with monoenergetic electrons and patient received dose Book in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • © 2021 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.Electron linear accelerators that work above 8MV produce neutrons. These neutrons will deliver an undesirable dose to the patients. Neutrons can be produced through (y, n) or (e, e'n) reactions, and are named photoneutrons and electroneutrons respectively. The cross section for the (y, n) reactions is roughly 137 times the (e, e'n) cross section, due to this, the study of neutrons production during cancer treatment done with an electron beam has received little attention. In this chapter it is described the use of Monte Carlo methods to estimate the photon spectra and neutron spectra produced when 10 and 15MeV monoenergetic electrons collide with the LINAC's scattering foil. The electron beam used is 2 mm-diameter and the scattering foil is made of tungsten (10mm-diameter and 0.5mm-thick). The spectras were estimated in 4 point-like detectors that were located at equidistant points from the foil center. Also, total fluences and doses were calculated. Another two detectors were sited at 50 and 100cm below the scattering foil, where the photon fluence, neutron fluence and doses were calculated as well.

publication date

  • May 26, 2021