TOPAS: An innovative proton Monte Carlo platform for research and clinical applications
TOPAS: An innovative proton Monte Carlo platform for research and clinical applications
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DOI：
10.1118/1.4758060
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发表时间：
2012-11-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Paganetti, H.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Perl, J.;Shin, J.;Paganetti, H.
目的：虽然蒙特卡罗粒子传输已被证明在许多领域（治疗头设计，剂量计算，屏蔽设计和成像研究）是有用的，并已特别重要的质子治疗（由于适形剂量分布和有限的光束范围内的病人），质子治疗中可用的通用蒙特卡罗代码已经过于复杂的大多数临床医学物理学家。学习过程不仅在时间上而且在可靠性上都有很大的成本。为了解决这个问题，我们开发了一个创新的质子蒙特卡罗平台和测试的工具，在各种质子治疗application.Methods：我们的方法是采取一个已经建立的通用蒙特卡罗代码和包装和扩展它创建一个专门的用户友好的工具，质子治疗。由此产生的工具，TOOL为PArticle模拟（TOPAS），应该使蒙特卡罗模拟更容易为研究和临床物理学家。TOPAS可以对被动散射或扫描射束治疗头进行建模，基于计算机断层摄影（CT）图像、评分剂量、注量等对患者几何形状进行建模，保存并重新启动相空间，提供高级图形，并且是全四维（4D）的，以处理治疗期间射束输送和患者几何形状的变化。一个定制设计的TOPAS参数控制系统被放置在代码的核心，以满足易用性，可靠性和可重复性的要求，而不牺牲灵活性。我们已经表明，TOPAS参数系统提供了简单而灵活的控制所有关键的模拟领域，如几何设置，粒子源设置，评分设置等，通过设计的一致性，我们已经确保用户在配置一个组件，评分器或过滤器的经验，同样适用于配置任何其他组件，评分器或过滤器。我们已经从安全管理中吸取了重要的经验教训，积极主动地消除了用户错误的可能来源，例如排队错误。我们已经模拟了质子治疗的例子，包括UCSF眼部治疗头，MGH立体定向对准放射外科治疗头和MGH机架治疗头在被动散射和扫描模式，我们已经证明了剂量计算的基础上，患者特定的CT数据。初步验证结果显示与测量数据的一致性，并证明了TOPAS在3D和4D模拟射束输送的能力。结论：我们已经证明了TOPAS的准确性和可用性，在各种质子治疗设置。由于我们正准备为医学物理学研究人员免费提供此工具，我们预计此工具将在不断增长的质子治疗社区中广泛使用。(c)2012年美国医学物理学家协会。[http：//dx.doi.org/10.1118/1.4758060]
Purpose: While Monte Carlo particle transport has proven useful in many areas (treatment head design, dose calculation, shielding design, and imaging studies) and has been particularly important for proton therapy (due to the conformal dose distributions and a finite beam range in the patient), the available general purpose Monte Carlo codes in proton therapy have been overly complex for most clinical medical physicists. The learning process has large costs not only in time but also in reliability. To address this issue, we developed an innovative proton Monte Carlo platform and tested the tool in a variety of proton therapy applications.Methods: Our approach was to take one of the already-established general purpose Monte Carlo codes and wrap and extend it to create a specialized user-friendly tool for proton therapy. The resulting tool, TOol for PArticle Simulation (TOPAS), should make Monte Carlo simulation more readily available for research and clinical physicists. TOPAS can model a passive scattering or scanning beam treatment head, model a patient geometry based on computed tomography (CT) images, score dose, fluence, etc., save and restart a phase space, provides advanced graphics, and is fully four-dimensional (4D) to handle variations in beam delivery and patient geometry during treatment. A custom-designed TOPAS parameter control system was placed at the heart of the code to meet requirements for ease of use, reliability, and repeatability without sacrificing flexibility.Results: We built and tested the TOPAS code. We have shown that the TOPAS parameter system provides easy yet flexible control over all key simulation areas such as geometry setup, particle source setup, scoring setup, etc. Through design consistency, we have insured that user experience gained in configuring one component, scorer or filter applies equally well to configuring any other component, scorer or filter. We have incorporated key lessons from safety management, proactively removing possible sources of user error such as line-ordering mistakes. We have modeled proton therapy treatment examples including the UCSF eye treatment head, the MGH stereotactic alignment in radiosurgery treatment head and the MGH gantry treatment heads in passive scattering and scanning modes, and we have demonstrated dose calculation based on patient-specific CT data. Initial validation results show agreement with measured data and demonstrate the capabilities of TOPAS in simulating beam delivery in 3D and 4D.Conclusions: We have demonstrated TOPAS accuracy and usability in a variety of proton therapy setups. As we are preparing to make this tool freely available for researchers in medical physics, we anticipate widespread use of this tool in the growing proton therapy community. (c) 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1118/1.4758060]