A Comparison Study for Dose Calculation in Radiation Therapy: Pencil Beam Kernel Based vs. Monte Carlo Simulation vs. Measurements

Abstract

Accurate dose calculation in radiation treatment planning is most important for successful treatment. Since human body is composed of various materials and not an ideal shape, it is not easy to calculate the accurate effective dose in the patients. Many methods have been proposed to solve inhomogeneity and surface contour problems. Monte Carlo simulations are regarded as the most accurate method, but it is not appropriate for routine planning because it takes so much time. Pencil beam kernel based convolution/superposition methods were also proposed to correct those effects. Nowadays, many commercial treatment planning systems have adopted this algorithm as a dose calculation engine. The purpose of this study is to verify the accuracy of the dose calculated from pencil beam kernel based treatment planning system comparing to Monte Carlo simulations and measurements especially in inhomogeneous region. Home-made inhomogeneous phantom, Helax-TMS ver. 6.0 and Monte Carlo code BEAMnrc and DOSXYZnrc were used in this study. In homogeneous media, the accuracy was acceptable but in inhomogeneous media, the errors were more significant. However in general clinical situation, pencil beam kernel based convolution algorithm is thought to be a valuable tool to calculate the dose

Meeting Name

1st Asian and Oceanic Congress for Radiation Protection sian and Oceanic Congress for Radiation Protection, AOCRP-1 (2002: Oct. 20-24, Seoul, Korea)

Department(s)

Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science

Keywords and Phrases

Calculation Methods; Computer Codes; Doses; Mathematical Logic; Medicine; Nuclear Medicine; Radiology; Therapy

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2002 Korean Association for Radiation Protection, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

24 Oct 2002

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