Dosimetry for Total Skin Electron Beam Therapy in Skin Cancer

Chu, Sung Sil; Loh, John J K; Kim, Gwi Eon

Abstract

Increasing frequency of skin cancer, mycosis fungoides, Kaposi's sarcoma etc, it need to treatment dose planning for total skin electron beam (TSEB) therapy. Appropriate treatment planning for TSEB therapy is needed to give homogeneous dose distribution throughout the entire skin surface. The energy of 6 MeV electron from the 18 MeV medical linear accelerator was adapted for superficial total skin electron beam therapy. The energy of the electron beam was reduced to 4.2 MeV by a 0.5cm x90cm x180cm acryl screen placed in a feet front of the patient. Six dual field beam was adapted for total skin irradiation to encompass the entire body surface from head to toe simultaneously. The patients were treated behind the acryl screen plate acted as a beam scatterer and contained a parallel-plate shallow ion chamber for dosimetry and beam monitoring. During treatment, the patient was placed in six different positions due to be homogeneous dose distribution for whole skin around the body. One treatment session delivered 400 cGy to the entire skin surface and patients were treated twice a week for eight consecutive weeks, which is equivalent to TDF value 57. Instrumentation and techniques developed in determining the depth dose, dose distribution and bremsstrahlung dose are discussed.