Presented By: Dr. Vandana Moderator: Mr.

Teerthraj
Junior Resident,
Dept. of Radiotherapy
CSMMU, Lucknow
The term radiation applies to the emission and
propagation of energy through space or a
material.
 no mass or physical form
 travel at speed of light (c) in a vacuum (or
air)
 c = 3 x 108 m/s
 travel in a linear path (until interaction
occurs)
 unaffected by
 electric or magnetic fields
 gravity
3
 obeys the wave equation
c=λν

 In Passing through the matter, the intensity is reduced

(attenuation), because of absorption &
scattering.

 obeys the inverse square law

I1d12 = I2d22

Radiation intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from 4

 dual nature: wave vs.
particle
 Wave: continuously
changing force fields
 energy travels as sine
WAVE
 macroscopic level

 Particle: photon or
quanta
 small packet of energy
acting as a PARTICLE
5
 microscopic level
 Electro Magnetic Spectrum (EMR)
Ionizing Non-Ionizing
ionizes [strips many other modes of
electrons from] atoms interaction
 Non-Ionizing Vs Ionizing
Radiation
Radiation that has enough energy to The process by which a neutral atom
move atoms to vibrate, but not acquires a positive or a negative charge
enough energy to remove electrons. is known as Ionization.
Removal of an orbital electron leaves the
atom positively charged, resulting in an
ion pair.
• molecule with a net positive
charge
• free electron with a negative
charge

c
 Atom - The smallest indivisible part of
an element.

 Nuclei + Orbital e- = Atom

 Nucleus  protons and neutrons

 Atoms are specified as ZXA where Z =

atomic number, and A = mass number.
  According to Niels Bohr, electrons
revolve in specific orbits around the
nucleus. These orbits are named as K,L,M
etc; K being innermost orbit.

 These electron orbits are synonymous

with energy levels.

 Higher the atomic number, greater is this

binding energy.

Fig : Bohr’s model of the

atom

Fig : Energy level diagram

(Hydrogen Nucleus)
 Amount of Energy required to remove an
electron completely from an atom

 B.E. α Z (Atomic Number )

the greater Atomic Number, the greater
binding energies

10
 When an x-ray or γ ray beam passes through a medium,
interactions occur between the beam and the matter.

 Initially the electrons are ejected from the atoms of the absorbing
medium which in turn, transfer their energy by producing
ionization and excitation of the atoms along their path.

 If the absorbing medium consists of body tissues, sufficient

energy may be deposited within the cells, destroying their
reproductive capacity.
However, most of the absorbed energy is converted into
heat, producing no biologic effect.
 Process Definition
Attenuation Removal of radiation from the beam by the matter.
Attenuation may occur due to scattering and absorption
Absorption The taking up of the energy from the beam by the irradiated
material. It is absorbed energy, which is important in
producing the radiobiological effects in material or soft
tissues.
Scattering refers to a change in the direction of the photons and its
contributes to both attenuation and absorption

Transmission Any photon, which does not suffer the above processes is
transmitted.
 Photon

High Speed
Electrons
 When mono-energetic (mono-
chromatic) radiation passes through
any material, a reduction in the
intensity of the beam occurs, This is
known as attenuation.

 Attenuation occurs exponentially, i.e.

a given fraction of the photons is
removed for a given thickness of the
attenuating material. Fig : Semilog plot showing exponential
attenuation of a monoenergetic photon
beam.
• Half-value-layer (HVL)- The thickness of the absorber material required
to decrease (attenuate) the intensity of a monoenergetic photon-beam to
half its original value.
• This shows the quality or the penetrating power of an x-ray beam.

2nd HVL

1st HVL
 Linear attenuation coefficient (μ) : The fractional reduction (in any
monoenergetic photon-beam) for any given material per unit
thickness.

 μ : is the probability of the photon being removed by a given

material.

μ = 0.693 / HVL

 The linear attenuation coefficient depends upon the density of the

material. As compression of a layer of material to one half of the
thickness will not affect its attenuation.

 To circumvent this problem, the mass attenuation coefficient is used

which is defined as:
Mass attenuation coefficient = μ / ρ
Attenuation of a photon beam by an absorbing material is
caused by five major types of interactions :
• Elastic scattering, Thomson scattering, unmodified scattering,
classical scattering, Rayleigh scattering, etc.
• X-rays cause the bound electrons to vibrate. These in turn emit
radiation of the same frequency in all directions.

• Wave nature of radiation

•
Attenuation without absorption- The energy is scattered in all
direction, but none of the energy is absorbed.

• Little importance in practical

radiotherapy, but is important
in X-ray crystallography.
Inelastic scattering, Modified, incoherent.

An incident photon interacts with an orbital electron to produce a recoil

electron and a scattered photon of energy less than the incident photon.
Before After
interaction interaction
Scattered
- - - -
Photon

- -
- -
Incoming photon Electron is
Collides with ejected from
electron atom
 The photon collides with electron and hands over part of its
energy to it. The angle through which the photon is scattered,
the energy handed over to the electron, and energy lost by the
photon are interconnected.

If the angle by which the electron is

scattered is Φ and the angle by which
the photon is scattered is θ, then the
following formula describes the
change in the wavelength (δλ)of the
photon:

λ2 – λ1 = δ λ = 0.024 ( 1- cos θ) Å
• The Compton effect results in both attenuation and absorption.

• The attenuation caused here is dependent upon the Electron

density and is practically same for all substances except
hydrogenous material, like water and soft tissue, where the
Compton effect is greater (because of the higher electron
density).
• It does not depend on Atomic Number.

• It is measured as mass scattering coefficient (σ/ρ),

 Material Density (g/cm3) Atomic Number Number of Electrons
per Gram
Hydrogen 0.0000899 1 6.00 × 1023
Carbon 2.25 6 3.01 × 1023
Oxygen 0.001429 8 3.01 × 1023
Aluminum 2.7 13 2.90 × 1023
Copper 8.9 29 2.75 × 1023
Lead 11.3 82 2.38 × 1023
Effective Atomic
Number
Fat 0.916 5.92 3.48 × 1023
Muscle 1.00 7.42 3.36 × 1023
Water 1.00 7.42 3.34 × 1023
Air 0.001293 7.64 3.01 × 1023
Bone 1.85 13.8 3.00 × 1023
Data from Johns HE, Cunningham JR. The physics of radiology. 3rd ed. Springfield, IL:
Charles C Thomas, 1969.
 The photoelectric effect is a phenomenon in
which a photon interacts with an atom and
ejects one of the orbital electrons from the
atom.

 The photon transfers all its energy to the

atom. This is used to overcome the binding
energy as well as to provide the kinetic
energy to the photo-electron.
hν - W + ½ mν2

W = The binding energy of the electron and

½ mν2 is the kinetic energy of the photo Fig. : The photo electric effect
electron.

 The ionized atom regains electrical neutrality by rearrangement of the other orbital
electrons. The electrons that undergo these rearrangements surrender some of the
energy in form of a photon known as the characteristic radiation of the atom.

 Absorption of these characteristic radiation internally in the atom may result in

emission of Auger electrons. These electrons are monoenergetic in nature.
  The mass photoelectric attenuation coefficient (τ/ρ) is
directly proportional to the cube of the atomic number and
inversely proportional to the cube of the radiation energy.
τ/ρ = k Z3/ E3

• As the graph on the right shows,

there are discontinuities in the
attenuation coefficient at specific
photon energies.
• The absorption edges,
correspond to the binding
energies of the electrons in
different shells.
• In diagnostic radiology, the primary mode of interaction
is photoelectric. It is also responsible for the contrast
effect.

• In therapeutic radiology, low-energy beams in

orthovoltage irradiation caused excessive absorption of
energy in bone.
 Pair Production: When the photon with energy in excess of 1.02
MeV passes close to the nucleus of an atom, the photon
disappears, and a positron and an electron appear.

 Annihilation: These two particles collide, converting to 2 photons

with equal energy of 511 kev.
 Thus, the energy absorbed from the beam (with incident energy,
E) is given by:
Eabsorbed = E - 1.02 MeV

 Pair production results from an interaction with the

electromagnetic field of the nucleus and as such the probability of
this process increases rapidly with the atomic number (Z 2 ).

 In addition, the likelihood of this interaction increases as the

photon energy increases.

 The pair production coefficient (π) is directly proportional to Z2

and log of incident photon energy.

π = k Z2 log (E)
 This reaction occurs when the photon has energy greater
than the binding energy of the nucleus itself. In this case,
it enters the nucleus and ejects a particle from it. The
photon disappears altogether, and any energy possesses in
excess of that needed to remove the particle becomes the
kinetic energy of escape of that particle.

 In most cases, this process results in the emission of

neutrons by the nuclei.

 This has a threshold of 10.86 MeV.

 Now a days, the main use of this reaction is for energy

calibration of machines producing high energy photons.
For this the following reaction is used:
29Cu +γ  29Cu62 + 0n1
63
 The Total Mass attenuation coefficient is the sum of three
individual coefficients; photoelectric coefficient, mass scattering
coefficient and pair production coefficient:

(μ/ρ) = (τ/ρ)+(σ/ρ)+(π/ρ)

 At low energies the photo electric attenuation coefficient is

larger.

 In between the ranges of 200 KeV- 4 MeV, Compton scattering is

the predominant mode of interaction.

 In the ranges above, pair production is dominant.

 Photon Energy Relative Number of Interactions (%)
(MeV) P.E. (τ/ρ) Compton (σ/ρ) Pair Prod. (π/ρ)
0.01 95 5 0
0.026 50 50 0
0.060 7 93 0
0.150 0 100 0
4.00 0 94 6
10.00 0 77 23
24.00 0 50 50
100.00 0 16 84
Data from Johns HE, Cunningham JR. The physics of radiology. 3rd ed. Springfield,
IL: Charles C Thomas, 1969.
 Energy Dominant Effects
Range

Up to 50KeV PE (Photo Electric)

effect is important

60 KeV - 90 Both PE & Compton

KeV effect

200 KeV - 4 Compton effect

MeV

Beyond 20 Pair Production

MeV

Figure: Plot of total mass attenuation coefficient (μ/ρ) as a function

of photon energy for lead and water. (from Johns HE, Cunningham JR.
The physics of radiology, 3rd ed.)
 Radiation type Direction
Recoil electrons Travels forward, angle not more than 90°.

Photoelectrons and electron Travels forward

pairs
Characteristic and annihilation Isotropic i.e. equally in all directions
radiation
Coherent scattered photons Isotropic

Compton scatter photons In forward direction, small angle of

scattering, lesser scattering for greater
incident energy
 Beta
Bremsstrahlu
Particle
- ng Photon
+ +

Nucleus

 Most of electrons set in motion by the above interactions lose

energy by inelastic collisions with the atomic electrons of the
material.
 Some electrons also loose energy by Bremsstrahlung
interactions with the nuclei.
 Thus, the energy absorption coefficient(μen) is defined as the
product of the energy transfer coefficient(μtr) and (1-g) where g
is the fraction of energy of secondarily charged particles lost to
bremsstrahlung in the material.

μen = μtr (1-g)

 In most interactions involving the soft tissues, the

bremsstrahlung component is negligible , and the energy
absorption coefficient is equal to the energy transfer coefficient
under these conditions.
 The relationship between the mass attenuation
coefficients and the mass absorption coefficient varies
as per the radiation energy as follows:

91%

% of attenuated energy absorbed

μ/ρ
Mass coefficient

μen

%
96
%
%

71
15

%
46

10 KeV
100 KeV 1 MeV 10 MeV

Photon energy
 Absorption (contd.)
 The mass absorption coefficients are practically identical
for most biological materials .

 In this energy range, the absorption per gram is maximum

for hydrogen, because of its higher electron density.

 However in very high and very low energy ranges the high
atomic number materials e.g. Bone absorb more radiation
with several unfortunate consequences.

 The energy absorption coefficient is an important quantity in

radiotherapy since it allows the evaluation of energy absorbed
in the tissues, a quantity of interest in predicting the biologic
effects of radiation.
 Particulate radiation can be classified into two categories:

◦ Ionizing or charged particles - Electron, Proton

◦ Uncharged particles.

 The two different modes of interaction and energy transfer of

electrons with matter include :

◦ Collision between the particle and the electron cloud resulting in

ionization and excitation. This is called Collisional loss.

◦ Collision between the nucleus and the particle resulting in

bremsstrahlung radiation. This is called Radiative loss.
 Electrons are light particles with negligible mass and single
negative charge. As a result they penetrate deeper than
other charged particles but at the same time undergo
greater scattering.

 The ionization pattern produced by a beam of electrons is

characterized by a constant value from the surface to a
depth equal to about half the range, followed by a rapid
falling off to almost zero at a depth equal to the range.

 This is specially seen in electrons in the energy range of 6

-15 MeV – making these useful in clinical practice

 These characteristics make electrons a useful treatment

modality for superficial lesions.
 Neutrons are indirectly ionizing uncharged radiations, which
interact only with the nucleus in two ways:
◦ By recoiling protons from hydrogen and the nucleus in other elements.
◦ Nuclear disintegration, which contribute to ~30% of the total dose
in tissues.

 The most efficient recoil is seen in the hydrogen nucleus and this
leads to the maximum absorption. This is an advantage
because most of the soft tissues in the body contains a large
proportion of hydrogen.

 The recoil protons, set in motion after interaction with neutrons.

further cause ionization. The dense ionization produced by these
particles in the vicinity, results in high LET values
 LET has certain important radiobiological implications:

◦ High LET radiation is more likely to induce lethal damage in

the cells due to the dense ionization they produce.

◦ The oxygen enhancement ratio nears 1 as the LET increases

– advantage in hypoxic tumors.

◦ The effect of fractionation reduces as LET increases.

◦ High LET radiation preferentially increase the repair

independent damage in the cells.

◦ High LET radiation also leads to reduced variability in the cell

cycle dependant radiosensitivity of cells.
 Cellular damage may occur directly when the radiation interacts
with the atom directly ( e.g. neutrons) or indirectly when
interaction occurs by secondary electrons (e.g. photon beams).

 Electrons produced by the ionizing events lead to further

ionizations as they move inside biological material --> these lead
to the formation of highly reactive free radicals like OH-, H-
radicals which in turn lead to chemical changes by breaking
chemical bonds.

 Some of these reactions are potentially damaging to the cell,

others effectively inactivate the radicals.

 The reactions that most commonly lead to cell damage usually

occur at the level of the DNA although they may occur at the level
of cell membranes, proteins etc.
 The main effect of radiation is to cause ionisation of the atoms in
the absorbing medium.

 Thus, when cells are irradiated, it is likely that ionisation of one or

more of the atoms on some of the DNA molecules will occur.

 This can lead to a number of consequences for the affected

molecule. These effects include
◦ breakage of the chains of molecules comprising the DNA, and
◦ breakage of the links between chains.
 The human body (about 60%) is
made up of water, and the
ionizing effects of radiation on
water can lead to an indirect
attack on DNA. The direct
attack of radiation on the
structure of DNA is not the
only means by which radiation
can affect cells.

 The radiation produces H2O2

after reaction with Water.
Hydrogen peroxide is a
chemically active and is
capable of reacting with DNA
to damage cells and the
genetic information contained
 The three major forms of interaction of radiation with
matter, which are of clinical importance in radiotherapy
are:
1. Compton effect.
2. Photoelectric effect.
3. Pair production.

 Out of these, the Compton effect is the most important in

modern-day megavoltage radiation therapy.

 The reduced scattering suffered by high-energy radiation

as well as the almost homogeneous tissue dosage is
primarily due to the Compton effect.
 The photoelectric effect is of primary importance in diagnostic
radiology and has only historical importance in present day
radiotherapy.

 Despite several decades of research, photon-beam still

constitute the main therapeutic modality in radiotherapy,
because of several unresolved technical problems with the use of
particulate radiation.
Any Questions?