Verification of cell irradiation dose deposition using a radiochromic film.

ABSTRACT

We describe a technique for the MTT assay that irradiates all cells at once by a combination of couch movement and a step-and-shoot irradiation technique on a linear accelerator with 6 MV and 18 MV photon beams. In two experimental setups, we obtained maximum to minimum dose ranges of 10 for the constant MU/bin (monitor units per bin) setup and 20 for the variable MU/bin technique. The irradiation technique described is dose rate independent and it can be used on any teletherapy irradiation machine. We also employed radiochromic film dosimetry to verify dose delivered in each of the wells within the dish. It is shown that for the lowest doses, relative dose variation within wells reaches a value of 6%. We also demonstrated that the radiochromic film positioned below the 96-well plate does not underestimate dose deposited within each compartment by more than 2% due to the vertical dose gradient.