Accurate, easy-to-commission radiotherapy beam models

描述（由申请人提供）：Monte Carlo是一种用于治疗头设计、机器校准和图像引导放射治疗等不同领域放射治疗的高精度方法。 例如，精确放射治疗的最新发展需要更高精度的剂量计算以实现全部临床益处。 蒙特卡洛可以满足这一需求。 不幸的是，蒙特卡洛算法很难实现。 本研究的目的是消除这一障碍，广泛的临床使用蒙特卡罗。 关键要求是治疗光束的准确、易于调试的模型。 调试是确定与该光束特有的测量相匹配的模型参数的过程。 使用当前的方法，不熟悉该方法的临床物理学家将需要数月的时间来调试标准的8束加速器。 这是不可接受的长。 该建议是为了证明梁模型可能既准确又容易委托。 这将通过三个具体目标来实现：1。通过测试模拟关键加速器组件（目标和散射箔）的准确性，证明蒙特卡罗对于验证束流模型（1%）是足够准确的，使用研究加速器上的测量值，独特地提供具有准确能量的束流。 2.将联合收割机实验与Monte Carlo相结合，以前所未有的精度（2%）为临床射束建立详细的粒子注量（粒子数、能量、方向）图。 来自3个主要制造商的加速器的详细测量，包括源和几何变化以及射束不对称性，将使用蒙特卡罗转换为注量图。 3.使用从常规测量中提取的参数开发梁模型，每个梁在一天内完成调试。 将使用注量图和剂量测量评价准确度。 实际结果将是一对射束模型，一个用于电子，一个用于X射线，这是很容易的委托，满足现代放射治疗的严格精度要求，并适用于今天的诊所放射治疗单位的大部分。 这将使全国各地的诊所能够利用这种最先进的临床工具的计算精度。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Monte Carlo is a highly accurate method for radiotherapy in areas as diverse as treatment head design, machine calibration, and image-guided radiotherapy. For example, recent developments in precision radiotherapy require higher accuracy dose calculation to realize full clinical benefit. Monte Carlo can meet this demand. Unfortunately, Monte Carlo is extremely difficult to implement. The objective of this study is to remove this obstacle to widespread clinical use of Monte Carlo. The key requirement is an accurate, easily commissioned model of the treatment beam. Commissioning is the process of determining the parameters of the model that match the measurements peculiar to that beam. Using current methodology, a clinical physicist unfamiliar with the method would take months to commission a standard 8-beam accelerator. This is unacceptably long. The proposal is to prove beam models may be both accurate and easy to commission. This will be accomplished with 3 Specific Aims: 1. Prove Monte Carlo is sufficiently accurate for validating beam models (1%) by testing the accuracy for simulating the key accelerator components (target and scattering foils), using measurements on a research accelerator, unique in providing beams with accurate energies. 2. Combine experiment with Monte Carlo to establish detailed maps of particle fluence (particle number, energy, direction) of unprecedented accuracy (2%) for clinical beams. Detailed measurements on accelerators from the 3 major manufacturers, including source and geometry variations and beam asymmetry, will be converted to fluence maps using Monte Carlo. 3. Develop beam models with parameters extracted from routine measurements, with commissioning done in under a day per beam. Accuracy will be evaluated using the fluence maps and dose measurements. The practical result will be a pair of beam models, one for electrons, one for x-rays, which are easy to commission, meet the stringent accuracy requirement of modern radiotherapy, and apply to the bulk of radiotherapy units in clinics today. This will allow clinics around the country to take advantage of the computational accuracy of this state-of-the-art clinical tool.