Abstract

Radiotherapy is a widely used treatment for cancer. Currently applying the technique of Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, in which an important aspect is the modulation of the radiation beam to generate a non-uniform dose distribution in the tumor. One way to achieve the above non-uniform dose distribution is using solid compensators. In the market there are a number of materials used to manufacture compensators. Pb alloys on the market are: Cerromatrix, Rose, Wood, Newton, Darcet, whose compositions vary with respect to the composition of the lipowitz metal. This paper quantifies the dosimetric effects of the composition of commercial alloys, routinely used in radiotherapy. This quantification is important because of its impact on the total uncertainty of treatment accepted in the dosimetric calculations. To investigate the dosimetric effect of the composition of commercial alloys in the market we used the PENELOPE code, code that allows the simulation of radiation transport in different media by Monte Carlo method.The results show that there is a difference dosimetric respect lipowitz material, ranging from 7 % to 9 % for the materials investigated. These values indicate the importance of knowing exactly the dosimetric characteristics of the material used as compensator for their implications in the dose calculation.