The flatness of Siemens linear accelerator x-ray fields

The primary definer for Siemens MXE and MDX linear accelerators projects a circular opening with a radius of 25 cm at 100 cm from the target. Our measurements of photon beam profiles, however, indicate that the photon fluence drops to 95% of the central axis value at a radius of 18 cm. The flattening filter for these machines projects a flattened field size that is much smaller than the primary definer would allow. The clinical implications of this mismatch for large rectangular fields and for fields defined by asymmetric jaws are discussed and solutions are considered. A large field flattener was designed for our Siemens MXE 6 MV beam using Monte Carlo simulation of the treatment head and water phantom. The accuracy required of source and geometry details for dose distributions calculation is presented. The key parameters are the mean energy and focal spot size of the electron beam incident on the exit window, the material composition, and thickness profile of the exit window, target, flattener, and primary collimator, and the position of the primary collimator relative to the target. Profiles were more sensitive than central axis depth doses to simulation details. The beam energy and primary collimator position were selected to achieve good agreement between measured and calculated dose distributions. The flattener we designed with Monte Carlo was machined from brass and mounted on our MXE treatment unit. Measurements demonstrate that the large field flattener extends the useful radius of the field out to 22 cm, right into the penumbra cast by the primary collimator. (C) 1999 American Association of Physicists in Medicine. [S0094-2405(99)02402-5].