Investigation of dose homogeneity in paediatric anthropomorphic phantoms for a simple total body irradiation technique

The technique for treating total body irradiation patients used at the cent re involves no compensation for the inhomogeneity of patient shape. Dose is prescribed to the lung, and monitor units are derived from standard data d epending on the external dimensions of the patient at nipple level. Dose me asurements were made during standard treatments on three paediatric anthrop omorphic phantoms representing children of 5, 10 and 15 years of age. The r esults confirmed that the measured dose to the lung was within 4% of the pr escribed dose, and dose homogeneity was within +/-5%, excluding the neck, w here the higher measured doses were still within tissue tolerance.