Comparison of the dose perturbation arising from conventional and the novel PEEK prosthesis materials during high energy radiotherapy with 15 MV photons

Abstract Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the dosimetric effects of the metal prosthesis in radiotherapy by Siemens Primus 15 MV linac accelerator. In addition, it proposed the new material could lead to less dose perturbation. Materials and methods: The depth dose distributions of typical hip prostheses were calculated for 15 MV photons by MCNP-4C code. Five metal prostheses were selected to reveal the correlation between material type, density and dose perturbations of prostheses. Furthermore, the effects of the location and thickness of the prosthesis on the dose perturbation were also discussed and analysed. Results: The results showed that the Co-Cr-Mo alloy as the prosthesis had more influence on the dose at the interface of metal tissue. The dose increased at the entrance of this prosthesis and experienced the reduction when passed through it. Finally, the impact of the new PEEK biomedical polymer materials was also investigated, and the lowest dose perturbations were introduced based on the obtained results. Conclusion: It was found that the mean relative dose before and after of PEEK prosthesis was 99·2 and 97·1%, respectively. Therefore, this new biomedical polymer material was proposed to replace the current metal implants.