Dosimetric impact of monoenergetic photon beams in the small-animal irradiation with inhomogeneities: A Monte Carlo evaluation

This study investigated the variations of the dose and dose distribution in a small-animal irradiation due to the photon beam energy and presence of inhomogeneity. Based on the same mouse computed tomography image set, three Monte Carlo phantoms namely, inhomogeneous, homogeneous and bone-tissue phantoms were used in this study. These phantoms were generated by overriding the relative electron density of no voxel (inhomogeneous), all voxel (homogeneous) and the bone voxel (bone-tissue) to one. 360° photon arcs with beam energies of 50–1250 kV were used in mouse irradiations. Doses in the above phantoms were calculated using the EGSnrc-based DOSXYZnrc code through the DOSCTP. It was found that the dose conformity increased with the increase of the photon beam energy from the kV to MV range. For the inhomogeneous mouse phantom, increasing the photon beam energy from 50 kV to 1250 kV increased about 21 times the dose deposited at the isocenter. For the bone dose enhancement, the mean dose was 1.4 times higher when the bone inhomogeneity was not neglected using the 50 kV photon beams in the mouse irradiation. Bone dose enhancement affecting the mean dose in the mouse irradiation can be found in the photon beams with energy range of 50–200 kV, and the dose enhancement decreases with an increase of the beam energy. Moreover, the MV photon beam has a higher dose at the isocenter, and a better dose conformity compared to the kV beam.