The use of Monte Carlo technique to optimize the dose distribution in total skin irradiation

Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (mycosis fungoides) is an indolent disease with a low percentage of cure. Total skin irradiation using an electron beam has become an efficient treatment of mycosis fungoides with curative intention, with success in almost 40% of the patients. In this work, we propose the u se of a Monte Carlo technique to simulate the dose distribution in the pati ents during total skin irradiation treatments. Use was made of MCNP-4B, a w ell known and established code used to simulate transport of electrons, pho tons and neutrons through matter, especially in the area of reactor physics , and also finding increasing utility in medical physics. The goal of our w ork is to simulate different angles between each beam with a fixed treatmen t distance in order to obtain a uniform dose distribution in the patient. d (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.