Measurements of dose from secondary radiation outside a treatment field: Effects of wedges and blocks

Radiation dose outside the radiotherapy treatment field can be significant and therefore is of clinical interest in estimating organ doses. In a previous paper we reported the results of measurements made using unmodified radiation fields. We have extended this study to include the effects of wedge filters and blocks. For a given dose on the central axis of a radiation field, wedges can cause a factor of 2 to 4 increase in dose at any point outside the field compared with the dose when no wedge is used. Adding blocks to a treatment field can cause an increase in dose at points outside the field, but the effect is much smaller than the effect of a wedge, and generally less than a factor of 2. From the results of these measurements, doses to selected organs outside the field for specified treatment geometries were estimated, and the potential for reducing these organ doses by additional shielding was assessed.