Investigations of Electron Contamination in Photon Fluence Monitoring of Radiotherapy

Abstract: During the last decades radiotherapy has made major improvements in accuracy and individualization of the treatment techniques. In this project the thickness of a tungsten filter has been optimized using both simulations and experiments in order to further reduce the uncertainty in the dose given to the patient. With the filter, a dosage with less uncertainty can be obtained and less electrons will strike the patient which means less skin damage. In the simulations a program called PENELOPE, has been used which uses Monte Carlo methods for electron and photons transports. The experiment has been done on real Linear Accelerators.