Bolus silicone rubber with 2% silica composite for radiotherapy application

Abstract

Bolus is a device in external radiotherapy to increase a surface dose using electron beam. In this research, bolus was synthesized using silicone rubber (SR) and silica composite with dimension of 12 cm x 12 cm x 0.5 cm. In bolus synthesis, the SR mass was used with amount of 73 gram and catalyst volume with amount of 4 ml. Silica composite was added with 2% from SR mass, all of sample was mixed and poured into the mold and waited until the sample was completely hard and ready to lift from the molding. Bolus was charaterized using linear accelerator (LINAC) with electron beam to obtained a percentage of surface dose (PSD) in solid phantom surface and the electron beam energy were used 5 MeV and 7 MeV. The result show that the PSD value was increased with adding silica composite with PSD value are 105.55% and 99.76% for energy 5 MeV and 7 MeV, respectively.