Double scattering and pencil beam scanning Monte Carlo workflows for proton therapy retrospective studies on radiation-induced toxicities.
Cancer Radiother
; 27(4): 319-327, 2023 Jun.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37164897
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE:
Monte Carlo (MC) simulations can be used to accurately simulate dose and linear energy transfers (LET) distributions, thereby allowing for the calculation of the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of protons. We present hereby the validation and implementation of a workflow for the Monte Carlo modelling of the double scattered and pencil beam scanning proton beamlines at our institution.METHODS:
The TOPAS/Geant4 MC model of the clinical nozzle has been comprehensively validated against measurements. The validation also included a comparison between simulated clinical treatment plans for four representative patients and the clinical treatment planning system (TPS). Moreover, an in-house tool implemented in Python was tested to assess the variable RBE-weighted dose in proton plans, which was illustrated for a patient case with a developing radiation-induced toxicity.RESULTS:
The simulated range and modulation width closely matches the measurements. Gamma-indexes (3%/3mm 3D), which compare the TPS and MC computations, showed a passing rate superior to 98%. The calculated RBE-weighted dose presented a slight increase at the necrosis location, within the PTV margins. This indicates the need for reporting on the physical and biological effects of irradiation in high dose regions, especially at the healthy tissues and increased LET distributions location.CONCLUSION:
The results demonstrate that the Monte Carlo method can be used to independently validate a TPS calculation, and to estimate LET distributions. The features of the in-house tool can be used to correlate LET and RBE-weighted dose distributions with the incidence of radiation-induced toxicities following proton therapy treatments.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Health context:
1_ASSA2030
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Radiation Injuries
/
Proton Therapy
Type of study:
Health_economic_evaluation
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Cancer Radiother
Year:
2023
Document type:
Article