Effect of Material and Wall Thickness Buildup Caps on the Head Scatter Factor Measurements in Irregular Fields Shielded by Cerrobend

The head scatter factor (S(c)) is important to measurements radiation beam and beam modeling of treatment planning systems used for advanced radiation therapy techniques. This study aimed to investigate the design of a miniphantom to measurement variations in collimator S(c) in the presence of shielding blocks for shaping the beam using different field sizes. Copper, Brass, and Perspex buildup caps were designed and fabricated locally as material with three different thicknesses for buildup caps (miniphantoms). Measurements were performed on an Elekta Compact medical linear accelerator (6 MV) in Shafa Kerman Hospital, Iran. The Farmer-type ion chamber FG65-P (Scanditronix, Wellhofer) was used for all measurements. To measure the S(c), miniphantom was positioned in a stand vertical to the beam central axis. The data indicate that the S(c) measurements using different buildup cap materials and thicknesses in 5 × 10, 7.5 × 7.5, and two 10 × 10 cm Cerrobend shield blocks ranged 0.98 to 1.00, 1.04 to 1.05, and 1.04 to 1.06, respectively. Also, it was observed that by increasing the block shield area from 50 cm(2) to both 56.25 and 100 cm(2), the S(c) increased in all situations. Results showed that using Brass compared to Perspex and Copper has less uncertainty due to its simple preparation and cutting which is useful to measurement of variations in collimator S(c) and shaping the photon beam.