Entrance radiation dose determination for selected cancer patients at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

AimTo assess the precision of radiation dose delivery to Radiotherapy cancer patients at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Nigeria.Method and materialsEntrance doses for breast, cervical, prostate and head and neck cancer patients were determined using in-vivo thermo-luminescent dosimetry (TLD) technique. Total number of patients admitted for this study is 30. The TLDs were divided into four groups; breast (10), cervical (10), head and neck (5) and prostate (5). Two TLD chips were placed on each patient to obtain the average value. The patients were treated under normal conditions with TLD detectors placed at suitable points in the beam on the patient's skin, under a dose build-up material. The ELEKTA clinical linear accelerator (LINAC) available at the LINAC Center of our Radiotherapy Department served as the source of the 6 MV photon beam.ResultsThe results showed that 27 of 30 patients admitted were within ±5% of the recommended international limit. Prostate and cervical patients had doses within the range of the limit. Two of the breast patients were −5.05% and −5.88%. The maximum value of −6.01% was recorded in one of the head and neck treatments.ConclusionsThis study was part of efforts to optimize patient dose in our radiotherapy center. It has given us a preliminary description of the current practice of radiotherapy in this institution. The values obtained show no major differences from similar studies reported in the literature.