An estimation of cost of concrete shielding in a radiotherapy room housing a clinical linear accelerator that produces high-energy photons

Abstract

Ionizing radiations have an important role in medicine in the treatment of various types of cancer. In particular high-energy photon beams associated with advanced techniques such as IMRT (intensity modulated radiation therapy) and VMAT (volumetric modulated arc therapy) have been largely used in external beam radiotherapy. However, the use of these techniques requires a special attention to the shielding of the walls of the facility room housing a linear accelerator that produces high-energy photon beams. In this study we performed an estimation of cost of concrete shielding to a radiotherapy room where patients are treated with photon beams of energies from 4 to 30 MeV (mega-electron volts) based on simple assumptions. Results have shown that total cost of concrete increases about 19% when photon energies increase from 4 to 30 MeV for conventional therapy and about 23% when modern techniques are included. Results have also indicated a linear increasing of costs with the area of the facility room.