Monitor Unit Calculation Practice Problem
A patient is being treated with radiation therapy using a SSD of 101 cm and
a square field size of 11.0 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 12.3 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 = 12.3 \: cm, SSD = 100 \: cm) |
| 10.0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 60.3 |
| 10.9 | 1.004 | 1.002 | 60.6 |
| 11.0 | 1.004 | 1.002 | 60.6 |
| 12.3 | 1.009 | 1.005 | 61.0 |
MU