Principles and Applications in Multileaf Collimator for Radiation Therapy

방사선치료에 있어서 Multileaf Collimator의 원리와 그 응용

A conventional treatment machine shapes x-ray fields by a set of dense metal collimators(jaws) built into the machine. These collimators are positioned by the therapist using hand controls in the treatment room, and usually remain stationary during treatment. The collimator jaws of treatment machines produce rectangular beams. Conventional beam shaping is accomplished through the use of a combination of these collimator jaws and secondary custom beam blocks attached to the accelerator beyond the collimator Jaws. The jaw positions for a particular field can be retrieved from a computer. One application of this increased capability is replacement of beam blocks for field-shaping with the MLC. There are three basic applications of the MLC. The first application is to replace conventional blocking. A second function of the MLC is related to conformal therapy, adjusting the field shape to match the beam's eye view projection of a planning target volume during treatment. The third application is the use of the MLC to achieve beam intensity modulation. The aim of this paper is to provide basic principle and to state fundamental concepts needed to implement the use of a multileaf collimator in the conventional clinical setting. The use of MLC field shaping is likely to save time and to incur a lower operating cost when compared to the use of beam blocks.