 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Beam spoiler" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Abeam spoiler is a piece of material, placed into the path of thephoton beam inradiotherapy. The purpose of the spoiler is to reduce the depth of the maximum radiation dosage.[1]
The beam spoiler is composed of a sheet of material which has a lowatomic number,[2] typicallylucite, the thickness of which is varied according to the beam energy and the distance by which the radiation dose must be shifted.[1]
As the primary photon beam passes through the plate, secondaryelectrons are generated. The beam exiting the spoiler is a combination of the spoiler-attenuated photons and the spoiler-generated electrons. The electron component alters the depth dose in the buildup region in a way that depends on the photon beam energy, the field size, and the distance of the spoiler from the treatment surface.
 | This article related tomedical equipment is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |
