Compensators for IMRT--an investigation in quality assurance

Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) allows dose distributions which adequately consider organs at risk (OAR) and dose homogeneity to the target volume. This is practically reached by conforming the beam profiles to the shape of the planning target volume (PTV), by shaping the fluence with multileaf collimators (MLC) or compensators. Though compensator production is time consuming and seems less convenient than the use of MLC, compensators offer much easier quality assurance. In this study the effects of certain simplifications of compensator production were studied. Compensators were produced and ionization chamber measurements in a water phantom and film measurements in a solid phantom were performed to verify the compensators. The results of the measurements were compared to the fluence distributions given by the planning system. The measurements were meant to show how realistic the investigated simplifications were, and to reveal a suitable and reliable testing method for compensators. Monte-Carlo calculations employing the EGS 4 Code were further performed to support the measurements.