Simulation of electron contamination of the varian truebeam linear accelerator using Monte Carlo method

In this study, calculation of mean % surface dose distribution and mean % flux distribution of electron contamination that occurs in the megavoltage photon beams has been proposed using Monte Carlo simulation method for the Varian-Truebeam linear accelerator which is available in Radiation Oncology Department of Dokuz Eylul University. At first, in accordance with this purpose the linear accelerator was modelled using the GEANT4-based GAMOS simulation software. To test the model validation, PDDs and beam profiles were calculated for 6MV, 6MV-FFF, 10MV, 10MV-FFF, 15MV photon beams at the distance of SSD=100cm and at the field sizes of 4x4, 10x10, 20x20, 30x30cm2. All these calculations compared with measurements and the model validation was evaluated. And then, at the every field sizes and photon beam energies, in which the model were evaluated, % surface dose distribution and % flux distribution of electron contamination was calculated with Monte Carlo simulation method on the x-y plane two-dimensionally. And, obtained results were compared with previous researches. At the end of the processes that were for model validation, the calculated average standard deviations were 0.2 % and 0.1 % which were between calculated and measured PDDs, and beam profiles respectively. On the other hand, % surface doses and % flux of the contaminant electrons were found under the 0.01 % and the range of 0.01 % - 0.3 %, respectively. Percentage surface dose distribution and percentage flux distribution of the secondary electron contamination that was achieved at the end of this study were investigated in terms of dependence of the energy, field size and usage of flattening filter. The calculated dose and flux distributions consisted of relative values to the total dose and total number of particles. At this study, it was seem that contamination electrons contributed to the % surface dose, and also in the study, their surface flux distribution was determined.