• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.82-82
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• 2003

Introduction: With the development of dose calculation algorithms for electron beams, 3D RTP systerns are available for electron beam dose distribution commercially. However, no studies evaluated the accuracy of dose calculation with ADAC Pinnacle system for electron beams. So, the accuracy of the ADAC system is investigated by comparing electron dose distributions from ADAC system against the BEAMnrc/DOSXYZnrc. Methods: A total of 33 breast cancer patients treated with 6, 9, and 12MeV electrons in our institution was selected for this study. The first part of this study is to compare the dose distributions of measurement, TPS and the BEAMnrc/DOSXYZnrc code in flat water phantom at gantry zero position and for a 10 ${\times}$ 10 $\textrm{cm}^2$ field. The second part is to evaluate the monitor unit obtained from measurement and TPS. Adding actual breast patient's irregular blocks to the first part, monitor units to deliver 100 cGy to the dose maximum (dmax) were calculated from measurement and 3D RTP system. In addition, the dose distributions using blocks were compared between TPS and the BEAMnrc/DOSXYZnrc code. Finally, the effects of tissue inhomogeneities were studied by comparing dose distributions from Pinnacle and Monte Carlo method on CT data sets. Results: The dose distributions calculated using water phantom by the TPS and the BEAMnrc/ DOSXYZnrc code agreed well with measured data within 2% of the maximum dose. The maximum differences of monitor unit between measured and Pinnacle TPS in flat water phantom at gantry zero position were 4% for 6 MeV and 2% for 9 and 12 MeV electrons. In real-patient cases, comparison of depth doses and lateral dose profiles calculated by the Pinnacle TPS, with BEAMnrc/DOSXYZnrc code has generally shown good agreement with relative difference less than +/-3%. Discussion: For comparisons of real-patient cases, the maximum differences between the TPS and BEAMnrc/DOSXYZnrc on CT data were 10%. These discrepancies were due in part to the inaccurate dose calculation of the TPS, so that it needs to be improved properly. Conclusions: On the basis of the results presented in this study, we can conclude that the ADAC Pinnacle system for electron beams is capable of giving results absolutely comparable to those of a Monte Carlo calculation.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.240-248
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• 2003

The Monte Carlo calculation is the most accurate means of predicting radiation dose, but its accuracy is accompanied by an increase in the amount of time required to produce a statistically meaningful dose distribution. In this study, the effects on calculation time by introducing variance reduction techniques and increasing computing power, respectively, in the Monte Carlo dose calculation for a 6 MV photon beam from the Varian 600 C/D were estimated when maintaining accuracy of the Monte Carlo calculation results. The EGSnrc­based BEAMnrc code was used to simulate the beam and the EGSnrc­based DOSXYZnrc code to calculate dose distributions. Variance reduction techniques in the codes were used to describe reduced­physics, and a computer cluster consisting of ten PCs was built to execute parallel computing. As a result, time was more reduced by the use of variance reduction techniques than that by the increase of computing power. Because the use of the Monte Carlo dose calculation in clinical practice is yet limited by reducing the computational time only through improvements in computing power, introduction of reduced­physics into the Monte Carlo calculation is inevitable at this point. Therefore, a more active investigation of existing or new reduced­physics approaches is required.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.253-260
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• 2010

Most brachytherapy treatment planning systems employ a dosimetry formalism based on the AAPM TG-43 report which does not appropriately consider tissue heterogeneity. In this study we aimed to set up a simple Monte Carlo-based intracavitary high-dose-rate brachytherapy (IC-HDRB) plan verification platform, focusing particularly on the robustness of the direct Monte Carlo dose calculation using material and density information derived from CT images. CT images of slab phantoms and a uterine cervical cancer patient were used for brachytherapy plans based on the Plato (Nucletron, Netherlands) brachytherapy planning system. Monte Carlo simulations were implemented using the parameters from the Plato system and compared with the EBT film dosimetry and conventional dose computations. EGSnrc based DOSXYZnrc code was used for Monte Carlo simulations. Each $^{192}Ir$ source of the afterloader was approximately modeled as a parallel-piped shape inside the converted CT data set whose voxel size was $2{\times}2{\times}2\;mm^3$. Bracytherapy dose calculations based on the TG-43 showed good agreement with the Monte Carlo results in a homogeneous media whose density was close to water, but there were significant errors in high-density materials. For a patient case, A and B point dose differences were less than 3%, while the mean dose discrepancy was as much as 5%. Conventional dose computation methods might underdose the targets by not accounting for the effects of high-density materials. The proposed platform was shown to be feasible and to have good dose calculation accuracy. One should be careful when confirming the plan using a conventional brachytherapy dose computation method, and moreover, an independent dose verification system as developed in this study might be helpful.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.105-115
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• 2004

The Monte Carlo simulation requires very much time to obtain a result of acceptable accuracy. Therefore we should know the optimum number of history not to sacrifice time as well as the accuracy. In this study, we have investigated the effects of statistical uncertainties of the photon dose calculation. BEAMnrc and DOSXYZnrc systems were used for the Monte Carlo dose calculation and the case of mediastinum was simulated. The several dose calculation result from various number of histories had been obtained and analyzed using the criteria of isodose curve comparison, dose volume histogram comparison(DVH) and root mean-square differences(RMSD). Statistical uncertainties were observed most evidently in isodose curve comparison and RMSD while DVHs were less sensitive. The acceptable uncertainties $(\bar{{\Delta}D})$ of the Monte Carlo photon dose calculation for the radiation therapy were estimated within total 9% error or 1% error for over than $D_{max}/2$ voxels or voxels at maximum dose.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.291-293
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• 2002

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 the 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, including Pinnacle and Helax-TMS, 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 Helax-TMS 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. Dose calculation results from TPS and Monte Carlo simulation were verified by measurements. In homogeneous media, the accuracy was acceptable but in inhomogeneous media, the errors were more significant.