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[Determination of the human tissue interaction parameters for Monte Carlo dose calculations in radiotherapy]
1Abteilung für Medizinische Physik, Universitätsklinikum Tübingen. msfippel@med.uni-tuebingen.de
Background:
Monte Carlo dose calculation techniques for clinical photon and electron beams potentially predict the dose with an accuracy of better than +/- 2%. However, to achieve this precision, knowledge of the interaction properties in each volume element is essential.
Material And Methods:
In the present paper a method for mass density to total cross section conversion is described. This method is based on a detailed analysis of the interaction data for body tissues (ICRU Report 46) and allows the conversion without knowing the atomic composition.
Results:
The analysis resulted in various fit functions allowing the calculation of interaction parameters for arbitrary materials using the corresponding cross sections in water.
Conclusion:
Together with standard procedures to calculate mass densities from a given CT number distribution, the method represents an effective and accurate algorithm to determine photon interaction coefficients, electron stopping powers as well as electron scatter parameters.