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PubMed1989

Equal surface dose compensation.

This paper investigates a method of designing and producing an unusual class of compensators. Through use of these compensators one can deliver an even dose to dmax when one is irradiating a sloping contour with a single megavoltage photon field. These compensators are designed not to provide an even dose at midplane in a patient but instead to produce what may conceptually be described as an equal surface dose. (A more accurate but less descriptive term would be equal dmax dose compensator.)

Breast Neoplasms↗

PubMed1988

Polyethylene-lead tissue compensators for megavoltage radiotherapy.

Tissue compensators afford one the opportunity of producing idealized dose distributions in radiotherapy. We have developed a technique which may be used to produce fast, accurate and inexpensive compensators within a few minutes and requires minimal patient involvement. Three dimensional contour data is acquired using a moire fringe photograph taken at the time of simulation. The photograph is projected to the size needed for the actual compensator and a sketch of the compensator is made. The sketch is placed in a specially designed small portable pantographic unit and the design is traced while the unit cuts the compensator from an indexed polyethylene-lead blank which is premounted on an acrylic tray. The polyethylene-lead material proves to have an ideal combination of properties for compensator construction including relatively high density, ease of machining, good handling characteristics and low cost.

Humans↗