A multicenter study of modified electron beam output calibration

Purpose This study aims to assess the accuracy of a modified electron beam calibration based on the IAEA TRS‐398 and AAPM‐TG‐51 in multicenter radiotherapy. Methods This study was performed using the Elekta and Varian Linear Accelerator electron beams with energies of 4–22 MeV under reference conditions using cylindrical (PTW 30013, IBA FC65‐G, and IBA FC65‐P) and parallel‐plate (PTW 34045, PTW 34001, and IBA PPC‐40) chambers. The modified calibration used a cylindrical chamber and an updated k′Q$k{^{\prime}}_Q$ based on Monte Carlo calculations, whereas TRS‐398 and TG‐51 used cylindrical and parallel‐plate chambers for reference dosimetry. The dose ratio of the modified calibration procedure, TRS‐398 and TG‐51 were obtained by comparing the dose at the maximum depth of the modified calibration to TRS‐398 and TG‐51. Results The study found that all cylindrical chambers’ beam quality conversion factors determined with the modified calibration (k′Q)$( {{{k^{\prime}}}_Q} )$ to the TRS‐398 and TG‐51 vary from 0.994 to 1.003 and 1.000 to 1.010, respectively. The dose ratio of modified/TRS‐398cyl and modified/TRS‐398parallel‐plate, the variation ranges were 0.980–1.014 and 0.981–1.019, while for the counterpart modified/TG‐51cyl was found varying between 0.991 and 1.017 and the ratio of modified/TG‐51parallel‐plate varied in the range of 0.981–1.019. Conclusion This multi‐institutional study analyzed a modified calibration procedure utilizing new data for electron beam calibrations at multiple institutions and evaluated existing calibration protocols. Based on observed variations, the current calibration protocols should be updated with detailed metrics on the stability of linac components.