Characterization of the gafchromic EBT3 films for dose distribution measurements in stereotactic radiotherapy

• The performance of the EBT3 films with the EPSON V700 scanner has been evaluated.
• 20 blank scans are necessary to obtain the stability of the scanner.
• No significant energy dependence has been observed above 30 keV.
• No angular dependence has been found.

Radiochromic film dosimetry is a promising technique, but at this time there are some artefacts, including non-uniformity, energy dependence and scanner artefacts. Accurate dosimetry with radiochromic films requires characterizing the film as well as the scanning and analysis procedures. In this work, the performance of the EBT3 films in combination with the EPSON Dual Lens Perfection V700 scanner for dose distribution measurements in stereotactic radiotherapy has been evaluated. It has been shown that it was necessary to perform 20 blank scans to obtain the stability of the scanner. In order to reduce the uncertainties due to the non-uniformity of the scan field, it was then decided to use the 12 × 12 cm2 central part of the scanner bed. Regarding EBT3 films, intra-sheet and inter-sheet uniformity of unexposed EBT3 films in terms of pixel value has been found to be respectively 0.27% (1 SD) and 0.15% (1 SD). No significant energy dependence has been observed above 30 keV and no angular dependence has been found.