Monitor Unit Calculation Practice Problem
A patient is being treated with radiation therapy using a SSD of 102 cm and
a square field size of 13.3 cm2 at the surface. The SAD for this machine is 100 cm. The medical linear accelerator is calibrated to deliver 1 cGy/MU at a depth
t0 = dmax = 1.5 cm, using a setup SSD of 100 cm and a field size
of 10 cm x 10 cm. What is the number of monitor units (MU) required to deliver an absorbed
dose of 200 cGy to a depth of 12.8 cm, on the central axis of the beam?
**Use the data provided below for square field
sizes. (You will not need all the data provided, and some data may need to be derived using
the F factor or the TMR/PDD conversion equation.)
| Field Size (cm) | S_c | S_p | PDD(d = 12.8 \: cm, SSD = 100 \: cm) |
| 10.0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 58.5 |
| 13.0 | 1.012 | 1.006 | 59.5 |
| 13.3 | 1.013 | 1.007 | 59.6 |
| 15.0 | 1.020 | 1.010 | 60.2 |
MU