title: Experimental evaluation of the accuracy of skin dose calculation for a commercial treatment planning system.
abstract: This work investigates the accuracy of skin dose calculations using the Eclipse treatment planning system. Skin dose was measured using micro-MOSFETs for a range of irradiation conditions (open fields, physical wedges, dynamic wedges, different SSDs) for 6MV and 10MV beams, and compared with the mean dose calculated to a 2mm thick "skin" structure for semi-cylindrical phantoms (representative of a neck or breast). Agreement between the calculated and measured skin dose values was better than +/-20% for 95% of all measured points (both 6MV and 10MV x-ray spectra). For a fixed geometry, the TPS correctly calculated relative changes in dose, showing that minimization of skin dose in IMRT will be effective in Eclipse.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber/Brigham & Women's Cancer Center, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Laurence E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Court
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber/Brigham & Women's Cancer Center, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Roy B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Tishler
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber/Brigham & Women's Cancer Center, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Aaron M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber/Brigham & Women's Cancer Center, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber/Brigham & Women's Cancer Center, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Makrigiorgos
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana-Farber/Brigham & Women's Cancer Center, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chin
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D020266:Radiotherapy, Conformal / Q000379:methods*; D012062:Relative Biological Effectiveness; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena