Monte Carlo calculated photon interaction coefficients for several body tissues.

Area of Science:

• Medical Physics
• Radiation Dosimetry
• Computational Biology

Background:

• Radiation energy absorption in tissues can cause cellular damage, leading to adverse health effects like cancer.
• Accurate quantification of radiation interaction parameters is crucial for radiation safety and medical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To calculate mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ), mass energy-absorption coefficient (μ_en/ρ), and mass energy-transfer coefficient (μ_tr/ρ) for various human tissues and water.
• To validate simulation results by comparing them with existing theoretical data.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the MCNP6.1 Monte Carlo package for simulations.
• Modeled a monoenergetic point source emitting a pencil beam across a wide energy range (10 keV to 20 MeV).
• Scored particle flux, energy flux, and absorbed dose from photon interactions in defined tissue models.

Main Results:

• Presented calculated μ/ρ, μ_en/ρ, and μ_tr/ρ values for human tissues including adipose, blood, bone, brain, breast, eye lens, lung, muscle, ovary, soft tissue, and testes.
• Achieved good agreement between simulated data and theoretical photon attenuation data from the XMUDAT database.
• Demonstrated the applicability of the Monte Carlo approach for evaluating these coefficients across a broad energy spectrum.

Conclusions:

• The study provides a valuable dataset of radiation interaction coefficients for human tissues.
• The validated Monte Carlo method can be reliably used for calculating these parameters for diverse materials.
• Findings support advancements in radiation dosimetry and risk assessment for biological tissues.