A Monte Carlo dose calculation tool for radiotherapy treatment planning.
A Monte Carlo user code, MCDOSE, has been developed for radiotherapy treatment planning (RTP) dose calculations. MCDOSE is designed as a dose calculation module suitable for adaptation to host RTP systems. MCDOSE can be used for both conventional photon/electron beam calculation and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatment planning. MCDOSE uses a multiple-source model to reconstruct the treatment beam phase space. Based on Monte Carlo simulated or measured beam data acquired during commissioning, source-model parameters are adjusted through an automated procedure. Beam modifiers such as jaws, physical and dynamic wedges, compensators, blocks, electron cut-outs and bolus are simulated by MCDOSE together with a 3D rectilinear patient geometry model built from CT data. Dose distributions calculated using MCDOSE agreed well with those calculated by the EGS4/DOSXYZ code using different beam set-ups and beam modifiers. Heterogeneity correction factors for layered-lung or layered-bone phantoms as calculated by both codes were consistent with measured data to within 1%. The effect of energy cut-offs for particle transport was investigated. Variance reduction techniques were implemented in MCDOSE to achieve a speedup factor of 10-30 compared to DOSXYZ.
Ma
C M
CM
Radiation Oncology Department, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA 94305, USA. c_ma@fccc.edu
Li
J S
JS
Pawlicki
T
T
Jiang
S B
SB
Deng
J
J
Lee
M C
MC
Koumrian
T
T
Luxton
M
M
Brain
S
S
D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D020266:Radiotherapy, Conformal / Q000379:methods*