Evaluation of Dosimetric Characterization of Homemade Bolus for Radiation Therapy

The bolus is also known a tissue compensation that has material similar to body tissue and placed directly onto the skin surface for radiation therapy. This study aims to characterize and evaluate the synthesized homemade bolus using Natural Rubber, Paraffin Candle, Play-Doh, and Paraffin Wax Pure for radiation therapy using a photon beam. Several dosimetry properties of the synthesized of the bolus, including relative electron density (RED), transmission factor, attenuation coefficient, and percentage of surface dose (PSD), were investigated. All the synthesized bolus made with the same dimension of 11×11 cm2 with the thickness is 1 cm. CT-Scan was used to measure relative electron density (RED) where as LINAC 2300iX with energies 6 and 10 MV were used to evaluate percentage of surface dose. The RED value of all bolus material is in accordance with the provisions of bolus as a tissue compensation of the human body, which is almost the same as the value of HU in breast organs, skin, fat and adult bones. Large transmission factors and attenuation coefficients of each bolus correspond to bolus from paraffin candles as the default bolus of the hospital. The maximum bolus dose value increases when compared to measurements without bolus.