Buildup region and skin-dose measurements for the Therac 6 linear accelerator for radiation therapy

Buildup and surface-dose measurements were taken for the 6 MV photon beam from a Therac 6 linear accelerator manufactured by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) with and without a lucite blocking tray in place. Further measurements were made with a copper filter designed to reduce secondary electrons emitted by photon interactions with the Lucite tray. The results are discussed in relation to skin-sparing for radiation therapy patients. The measurements were made with a fixed volume PTW parallel-plate ionization chamber and corrected to zero-chamber volume. The results were found to be consistent with similar measurements taken with a variable volume extrapolation chamber.