Effect of the electron transport through thin slabs on the simulation of linear electron accelerators of use in therapy: A comparative study of various Monte Carlo codes

When a therapeutic electron linear accelerator is simulated using a Monte Carlo (MC) code, the tuning of the initial spectra and the renormalization of dose (e.g., to maximum axial dose) constitute a common practice. As a result, very similar depth dose curves are obtained for different MC codes. However, if renormalization is turned off, the results obtained with the various codes disagree noticeably. The aim of this work is to investigate in detail the reasons of this disagreement. We have found that the observed differences are due to non-negligible differences in the angular scattering of the electron beam in very thin slabs of dense material (primary foil) and thick slabs of very low density material (air). To gain insight, the effects of the angular scattering models considered in various MC codes on the dose distribution in a water phantom are discussed using very simple geometrical configurations for the LINAC. The MC codes PENELOPE 2003, PENELOPE 2005, GEANT4, GEANT3, EGSnrc and MCNPX have been used.