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

Abstract

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 use of a Monte Carlo technique to simulate the dose distribution in the patients during total skin irradiation treatments. Use was made of MCNP-4B, a well known and established code used to simulate transport of electrons, photons and neutrons through matter, especially in the area of reactor physics, and also finding increasing utility in medical physics. The goal of our work is to simulate different angles between each beam with a fixed treatment distance in order to obtain a uniform dose distribution in the patient.