designing and dosimetry of a shield for photon fields of radiation therapy in oral cavity cancer

the cancer of oral cavity is related to lesions of mucous membrane of tongue and gum that can be treated with radiation therapy. a lateral photon field can be used to treat this kind of tumor, which has a side‑effect on normal tissue in the opposite side of the oral cavity. in this study the dosimetric effect of the various shields in oral cavity is evaluated. in this study, a special phantom similar to the structure of oral cavity with capability of film dosimetry was designed and constructed. the various shield slabs were made of five materials: lead, plexiglas, acrylic resin, silicon and plaster. for irradiation, cobalt 60 (60co) and 6 mv photon beams were used. the film dosimetry before and after the shield was performed using gafchromic ebt2 films. the film before the shield measures the magnitude of backscattering radiation from the shield. the prescribed dose was 150 cgy. results showed that 3 cm of the lead in both energies had the maximum absorption of radiation. the absorbed dose to opposite side of shield for 6 mv photon beams and 60co were 21 and 32 cgy, respectively. the minimum attenuation on radiation was observed in silicon shield for which the dose of opposite side were 116 and 147 cgy for 6 mv and 60co respectively. the maximum backscattered dose was measured 177 cgy and 219 cgy using 3 cm thickness of lead, which was quite considerable. the minimum backscattering where for acrylic resin 101 and 118 cgy for 6 mv and cobalt. in this study, it was concluded that the amount of backscattering for 3 cm lead shield is quite considerable and increases the dose significantly. a composite layer of shield with 1–2 cm lead and 1 cm acrylic resin can have the protective effect and low backscattering radiation at the same time.