Measurement of linear accelerator spectra, reconstructed from percentage depth dose curves by neural networks.

Purpose Linear accelerator (linac) spectra, used to improve the accuracy of dose calculation and to produce a complete description of beam quality, among other aspects, are relevant in radiotherapy and linear accelerator physics. Methods In this work we apply neural networks in solving an ill-conditioned system of linear equations, to indirectly measure the linear accelerator spectra via the percentage depth dose curves. The photon beam spectra are related to radiation doses through a Fredholm integral equation.

A novel and fast methodology to calculate doses in LDR brachytherapy.

We present the concept of a new methodology for faster simulation of the doses in brachytherapy with permanent implants, based on the knowledge of the seeds arrangement, adding previously simulated doses in an equivalent medium in terms of the atomic composition of the organ in question. To perform the doses calculations we use Monte Carlo simulations. We simulated a cylindrical I-125 seed and compared our results against published data.