Dose calculation and in-phantom measurement in BNCT using response matrix method

In-phantom measurement of physical dose distribution is very important for Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) planning validation. If any changes take place in therapeutic neutron beam due to the beam shaping assembly (BSA) change, the dose will be changed so another group of simulations should be carried out for dose calculation. To avoid this time consuming procedure and speed up the dose calculation to help patients not wait for a long time, response matrix method was used. This procedure was performed for neutron beam of the optimized BSA as a reference beam. These calculations were carried out using the MCNPX, Monte Carlo code. The calculated beam parameters were measured for a SNYDER head phantom placed 10 cm away from beam the exit of the BSA. The head phantom can be assumed as a linear system and neutron beam and dose distribution can be assumed as an input and a response of this system (head phantom), respectively. Neutron spectrum energy was digitized into 27 groups. Dose response of each group was calculated. Summation of these dose responses is equal to a total dose of the whole neutron/gamma spectrum. Response matrix is the double dimension matrix (energy/dose) in which each parameter represents a depth–dose resulted from specific energy. If the spectrum is changed, response of each energy group may be differed. By considering response matrix and energy vector, dose response can be calculated. This method was tested for some BSA, and calculations show statistical errors less than 10%.