Nationwide Survey of (60)Co Teletherapy Dosimetry

The National Bureau of Standards is performing a study of the ability of radiation-therapy departments to deliver prescribed absorbed doses of (60)Co gamma radiation to a water phantom. Batches of thermoluminescence dosimeters are mailed to participating therapy departments for irradiation under prescribed conditions. Upon return of the dosimeters, the participants’ computations are checked and the absorbed dose is evaluated from dosimeter response. The rugged dosimetry system was assembled mainly from commercial components adapted to the present requirements of relatively high flexibility of readout parameters and data-handling techniques, and of relatively high accuracy. The uncertainty in the dose interpretation inherent in the system is estimated to be about 4 percent. In order to illustrate the type of information that can be obtained from such a study, results of the first four mailings involving tests on 114 (60)Co gamma-ray beams are discussed. They show about 75 percent of the dose interpretations to be within 5 percent of the prescribed absorbed dose, and about 20 percent to be within 5 to 10 percent of this dose. Four dose interpretations showed discrepancies larger than 20 percent. Differences in the computations larger than 1 percent were observed in over one-half of the cases.