Evaluation of radiation attenuation properties of some cancer drugs

Abstract

The present study was conducted to estimate the radiation attenuation parameters of six different antineoplastic drugs used in the cure of cancer diseases. The effective atomic number and electron density of anastrozole, epirubicin, gemcitabine, ifosfamide, methotrexate and paclitaxel were computed theoretically in the energy region of 1 keV to 100 GeV. The energy absorption buildup factors (EABF) and exposure buildup factors (EBF) for these chemotherapy drugs were also examined by applying Geometric Progression (GP) fitting method. The variation of EABF and EBF values with photon energy and penetration depth were presented graphically and discussed. The results obtained from this study pointed out that buildup factors rely on the chemical combination of the drugs, incident photon energy and penetration thickness. It was observed that ifosfamide had a significantly better radiation absorption effect compared to other drugs. The data obtained from this study are expected to be useful in the fields of radiation biology, radiation dosimetry and radiotherapy.