Attenuation of 60 Co gamma rays by barium acrylic resin composite shields

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the sixth most common cancer reported globally, with an annual incidence of over 300,000 cases, of which 62% arise in developing countries. Radiation therapy is a treatment modality that uses ionizing radiation as a therapeutic agent. It is widely employed in the treatment of head and neck cancer, as a primary therapy coupled with surgical procedure and chemotherapy or as a palliative treatment for advanced tumors. However, radiotherapy can cause a series of complications such as xerostomia, mucositis, osteoradionecrosis, and radiation caries. Composite circular disc containing different ratios of acrylic and barium sulfate (BaSO4) were made in-house. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the percentage attenuation from these composite shields in 60 Co gamma rays. A maximum of 8% radiation attenuation was achieved using 1:4 ratio of acrylic-BaSO4 composite shields. The study proposes BaSO4 as one of the compounds in combination with acrylic resin or any other thermoplastic substances for making biocompatible radiation attenuating devices.