Towards clinical use of varian clinac iX linear accelerator in a low resource radiotherapy facility: evaluation of commissioning data

ConclusionIn a low-resource radiotherapy facility in Ghana, the Varian Clinac IX linear accelerator was commissioned for the dual photon and four-electron energy beams. The study demonstrated that the newly installed dual photon beam energy (6 MV and 16 MV) and electron beam energy (6  MeV, 9 MeV, 12 MeV, and 16 MeV) Linac meets all the manufacturer's specifications. The measured percentage depth dose data, beam profiles, output factors, and other parameters were analyzed and integrated into the Eclipse treatment planning system (TPS). All the commissioning beam measurements and tests performed on the Linac under study agreed with the AAPM TG-106 protocol and other relevant publications. The beam data obtained is beneficial for the quality assurance (QA) program at the low-resource radiotherapy facility where the Linac is installed and for inter-comparison between diffe rent radiotherapy institutions. Overall, the commissioning of the Varian Clinac iX LINAC in the low-resource radiotherapy facility produced successful baseline data for the equipment, which is one of the most important quality assurance (QA) programs in the entire radiotherapy chain.
Source: Health and Technology - Category: Information Technology Source Type: research