Verification of the radiotherapy treatment planning system based on the PENFAST Monte Carlo code for dose calculations in photon and electron beams

Bouchra Habib (1) , Serge Marcié (2) , Bénédicte Poumarède (1) , Jean Barthe (1)

1 LM2S (CEA, LIST) - Laboratoire Modélisation et Simulation de Systèmes (CEA, LIST)
2 UNICANCER/CAL - Centre de Lutte contre le Cancer Antoine Lacassagne [Nice]

Developments in radiation therapy require a higher precision in dose delivery. Based on the conventional Monte Carlo code PENELOPE physics, a fast MC code named PENFAST was recently developed and included in the treatment planning system ISOgray (DOSIsoft). PENFAST performs photon and electron dose calculations in computerized tomography (CT) structures. It is necessary to assess the accuracy of the dose estimation before any clinical use of PENFAST. The MC simulation is split into 2 parts: (1) the simulation of particle transport through the accelerator head, using PENELOPE. A phase space file (PSF) is created. (2) The simulation of dose distributions in the phantom starting from the PSF, using PENELOPE or PENFAST. Depth-dose and dose profiles calculated with PENELOPE in water are compared to experimental measurements in order to validate the PSF calculation. Since comparisons among simulations and measurements in water are in good agreement (within ± 1%-1mm), the PSF calculation is validated. In inhomogeneous phantoms, the PENFAST results agree to within a 1%-1mm difference with the PENELOPE ones, and to within a 2%-2mm difference with measurements. This work shows the ability of PENFAST to calculate accurate dose distributions for photon and electron beams.

Mots clés: radiotherapy; treatment planning system; computerized tomography; medical imaging; ionizing radiation; CT imaging; tomography; Monte Carlo; particle transport; dosimetry; dose calculation; dose measurement; simulation; PENELOPE; modelling; PENFAST; linear accelerator; linac; phantom

Domaines: Physique Médicale [physics.med-ph]; Modélisation et simulation; Méthodologie [stat.ME]; Cancer

Bouchra Habib, Serge Marcié, Bénédicte Poumarède, Jean Barthe. Verification of the radiotherapy treatment planning system based on the PENFAST Monte Carlo code for dose calculations in photon and electron beams. 54th Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society (American Conference of Radiological Safety - 2009), Health Physics Society, Jul 2009, Minneapolis, United States. ⟨cea-02562733⟩