Dosimetric verification and clinical evaluation of a new commercially available Monte Carlo-based dose algorithm for application in stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) treatment planning.

Modern cancer treatment techniques, such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), have greatly increased the demand for more accurate treatment planning (structure definition, dose calculation, etc) and dose delivery. The ability to use fast and accurate Monte Carlo (MC)-based dose calculations within a commercial treatment planning system (TPS) in the clinical setting is now becoming more of a reality. This study describes the dosimetric verification and initial clinical evaluation of a new commercial MC-based photon beam dose calculation algorithm, within the iPlan v.

Fast, accurate photon beam accelerator modeling using BEAMnrc: a systematic investigation of efficiency enhancing methods and cross-section data.

In this work, an investigation of efficiency enhancing methods and cross-section data in the BEAMnrc Monte Carlo (MC) code system is presented. Additionally, BEAMnrc was compared with VMC++, another special-purpose MC code system that has recently been enhanced for the simulation of the entire treatment head. BEAMnrc and VMC++ were used to simulate a 6 MV photon beam from a Siemens Primus linear accelerator (linac) and phase space (PHSP) files were generated at 100 cm source-to-surface distance for the 10 x 10 and 40 x 40 cm2 field sizes.

Experimental verification and clinical implementation of a commercial Monte Carlo electron beam dose calculation algorithm.

This study describes the modeling and the experimental verification and clinical implementation of the alpha release of Pinnacle3 Monte Carlo (MC) electron beam dose calculation algorithm for patient-specific treatment planning. The MC electron beam modeling was performed for beam energies ranging from 6 to 18 MeV from a Siemens (Primus) linear accelerator using standard-shaped electron applicators and 100 cm source-to-surface distance (SSD). The agreement between MC calculations and measurements was, on average, within 2% and 2 mm for all applicator sizes.

Incorporation of a combinatorial geometry package and improved scoring capabilities in the EGSnrc Monte Carlo Code system.

A description is given of a generic EGSnrc Monte Carlo user code, GenUC, which was developed as an attempt to simplify and optimize the geometry and scoring coding of EGSnrc user codes. GenUC was developed using the methodology of combinatorial geometry that allows a straightforward implementation of complicated geometric setups with intersecting boundaries, where subsequent modifications to the geometry are easily performed. Presently, GenUC has five elemental volumes that can be defined in any position in space: spheres, ellipsoids, parallelepipeds, and circular cylinders and cones.