Treatment planning system calculations in inhomogeneous regions may present significant inaccuracies due to loss of electronic equilibrium. In this study, three different dose calculation algorithms, pencil beam, collapsed cone, and Monte-Carlo, provided by our planning system were compared to assess their impact on the three-dimensional planning of lung and breast cases. A total of five breast and five lung cases were calculated using the PB, CC, and MC algorithms. Planning treatment volume and organs at risk delineation was performed according to our institutions protocols on the Oncentra MasterPlan image registration module, on 0.3 to 0.5 cm computed tomography slices taken under normal respiration conditions. Four intensity-modulated radiation therapy plans were calculated according to each algorithm for each patient. The plans were conducted on the Oncentra MasterPlan and CMS Monaco treatment planning systems, for 6 MV. The plans were compared in terms of the dose distribution in target, OAR volumes, and monitor units. Furthermore, absolute dosimetry was measured using a three-dimensional diode array detector to evaluate the dose differences in a homogeneous phantom. Comparing the PB, CC, and MC algorithms planned dose distribution, the PB algorithm provided adequate coverage of the PTV. The MUs calculated using the PB algorithm was less than those of the other algorithms. The MC algorithm showed the highest accuracy in terms of the absolute dosimetry. Differences were found when comparing the calculation algorithms. The PB algorithm estimated higher doses for the target than the CC and MC algorithms. The PB algorithm actually overestimated the dose compared with those calculated by the CC and MC algorithms. The MC algorithm showed better accuracy than the other algorithms.
A broad-beam-delivery system for heavy-charged-particle radiotherapy often employs multiple collimators and a range-compensating filter, which potentially offer complex beam customization. In treatment planning, it is however difficult for a conventional pencil-beam algorithm to deal with these structures due to beam-size growth during transport. This study aims to resolve the problem with a novel computational model. The pencil beams are initially defined at the range compensating filter with angular-acceptance correction for the upstream collimators followed by the range compensation effects…
The pencil-beam model is valid only when elementary Gaussian beams are small enough with respect to lateral heterogeneity of a medium, which is not always the case in heavy charged particle radiotherapy. This work addresses a solution for this problem by applying our discovery of self-similar nature of Gaussian distributions. In this method, Gaussian beams split into narrower and deflecting daughter beams when their size has exceeded the lateral heterogeneity limit. They will be automatically arranged with modulated areal density for accurate and efficient dose calculations. The effectiveness …
A model for beam customization with collimators and a range-compensating filter based on the phase-space theory for beam transport is presented for dose distribution calculation in treatment planning of radiotherapy with protons and heavier ions. Independent handling of pencil beams in conventional pencil-beam algorithms causes unphysical collimator-height dependence in the middle of large fields, which is resolved by the framework comprised of generation, transport, collimation, regeneration, range-compensation, and edge-sharpening processes with a matrix of pencil beams. The model was verifi…
Targeting at the development of an accurate and efficient dose calculation engine for online adaptive radiotherapy, we have implemented a finite size pencil beam (FSPB) algorithm with a 3D-density correction method on GPU. This new GPU-based dose engine is built on our previously published ultrafast FSPB computational framework [Gu et al. Phys. Med. Biol. 54 6287-97, 2009]. Dosimetric evaluations against Monte Carlo dose calculations are conducted on 10 IMRT treatment plans (5 head-and-neck cases and 5 lung cases). For all cases, there is improvement with the 3D-density correction over the con…
A new variant of the pencil-beam (PB) algorithm for dose distribution calculation for radiotherapy with protons and heavier ions, the grid-dose spreading (GDS) algorithm, is proposed. The GDS algorithm is intrinsically faster than conventional PB algorithms due to approximations in convolution integral, where physical calculations are decoupled from simple grid-to-grid energy transfer. It was effortlessly implemented to a carbon-ion radiotherapy treatment planning system to enable realistic beam blurring in the field, which was absent with the broad-beam (BB) algorithm. For a typical prostate …
This work addresses computing techniques for dose calculations in treatment planning with proton and ion beams, based on an efficient kernel-convolution method referred to as grid-dose spreading (GDS) and accurate heterogeneity-correction method referred to as Gaussian beam splitting. The original GDS algorithm suffered from distortion of dose distribution for beams tilted with respect to the dose-grid axes. Use of intermediate grids normal to the beam field has solved the beam-tilting distortion. Interplay of arrangement between beams and grids was found as another intrinsic source of artifac…
This paper describes the dose delivery system used at the Centro Nazionale di Adroterapia Oncologica (CNAO) for ion beam modulated scanning radiotherapy. CNAO Foundation, INFN and University of Torino have developed and commissioned a Dose Delivery System (DDS) to monitor and guide ion beams accelerated by a synchrotron and to distribute the dose with a 3D scanning technique. The target volume, segmented in several layers orthogonally to the beam direction, is irradiated by thousands of pencil beams which must be steered and held to the prescribed positions until the prescribed number of parti…
In radiotherapy, a trade-off exists between computational workload/speed and dose calculation accuracy. Calculation methods like pencil-beam convolution can be much faster than Monte-Carlo methods, but less accurate. The dose difference, mostly caused by inhomogeneities and electronic disequilibrium, is highly correlated with the dose distribution and the underlying anatomical tissue density. We hypothesize that a conversion scheme can be established to boost low-accuracy doses to high-accuracy, using intensity information obtained from computed tomography (CT) images. A deep learning-driven f…
Next generation online and real-time adaptive radiotherapy workflows require precise particle transport simulations in sub-second times, which is unfeasible with current analytical pencil beam algorithms (PBA) or stochastic Monte Carlo (MC) methods. We present a data-driven millisecond speed dose calculation algorithm (DoTA) accurately predicting the dose deposited by mono-energetic proton pencil beams for arbitrary energies and patient geometries. Given the forward-scattering nature of protons, we frame 3D particle transport as modeling a sequence of 2D geometries in the beam's eye view. DoTA…
Purpose: Various dose calculation algorithms are available for radiation therapy for cancer patients. However, these algorithms are faced with the tradeoff between efficiency and accuracy. The fast algorithms are generally less accurate, while the accurate dose engines are often time consuming. In this work, we try to resolve this dilemma by exploring deep learning (DL) for dose calculation. Methods: We developed a new radiotherapy dose calculation engine based on a modified Hierarchically Densely Connected U-net (HD U-net) model and tested its feasibility with prostate intensity-modulated rad…
Online adaptive radiation therapy (ART) is an attractive concept that promises the ability to deliver an optimal treatment in response to the inter-fraction variability in patient anatomy. However, it has yet to be realized due to technical limitations. Fast dose deposit coefficient calculation is a critical component of the online planning process that is required for plan optimization of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Computer graphics processing units (GPUs) are well-suited to provide the requisite fast performance for the data-parallel nature of dose calculation. In this wor…
We are in a golden age of progress in artificial intelligence (AI). Radiotherapy, due to its technology-intensive nature as well as direct human-machine interactions, is perfectly suited for benefitting from AI to enhance accuracy and efficiency. Over the past few years, a vast majority of AI research have already been published in the field of photon therapy, while the applications of AI specifically targeted for particle therapy remain scarcely investigated. There are two distinct differences between photon therapy and particle therapy: beam interaction physics (photons vs. charged particles…
Laser acceleration promises innovation in particle beam therapy of cancer where an ultra-compact accelerator system for cancer beam therapy can become affordable to a broad range of patients. This is not feasible without the introduction of a technology that is radically different from the conventional accelerator-based approach. The laser acceleration method provides many enhanced capabilities for the radiation oncologist. It reduces the overall system size and weight by more than one order of magnitude. The characteristics of the particle beams (protons) make them suitable for a class of the…
Every radiotherapy center has to be equipped with real-time beam monitoring devices. In 2008, the medical application group from the Laboratory of Corpuscular Physics (LPC Caen) developed an Ionization Chamber in collaboration with the company IBA (Ion Beam Applications). This monitoring device called IC2/3 was developed to be used in IBAs universal irradiation head for Pencil Beam Scanning (PBS). The objectives presented in this article are to characterize the IC2/3 monitor in the energy and ux ranges used in protontherapy. The equipment has been tested with an IBAs cyclotronable to deliver p…
Focal-point scanning for dose delivery and optimization with focused laser-accelerated very-high-energy electron beams
Zhengzhou University（郑州大学）；Tsinghua University（清华大学）；Microsoft Research, AI for Science（微软研究院 AI for 科学）；The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University（郑州大学第一附属医院）；University of Michigan, Ann Arbor（密歇根大学安娜堡分校）；National Institute of Metrology（中国计量科学研究院）
Carbon ion beam radiotherapy enables a very localised dose deposition. However, already small changes in the patient geometry or positioning errors can significantly distort the dose distribution. A live monitoring system of the beam delivery within the patient is therefore highly desirable and could improve patient treatment. We present a novel three-dimensional imaging method of the beam in the irradiated object, exploiting the measured tracks of single secondary ions emerging under irradiation. The secondary particle tracks are detected with a TimePix stack, a set of parallel pixelated semi…
