Radiation absorbed dose for cobalt-60 gamma source in phantoms for different materials

Current practices in radiation therapy required high doses of radiation to be delivered with increased accuracy. Treatment planning task is exercised till an optimum dose distribution is achieved. The present reported work was performed to compare the various aspects of the cobalt-60 radiation beam therapy with fixed source-surface distance 70cm incident normally. This study was conducted in May 2012 at the Department of Radiation Physics of MD Anderson Cancer Centre, University of Texas, Houston, United States. Radiation doses were calculated in a solid phantom as well as in water phantom at different square field sizes and depths. It was noted that the rate of absorbed dose increased with the increase in the field size and decreased with the increase in depths. The rate of absorbed dose was found to be directly proportional to the increase in the square field size and inversely proportional to the increase in depth. Moreover, the solid phantom demonstrated more absorbed doses as compared to the water phantom.