Program Information

Fast and Accurate Hybrid Source Model for Modulated Electron Radiotherapy

P Papaconstadopoulos*, J Seuntjens, McGill University, Montreal, QC

WE-C-BRB-4 Wednesday 10:30:00 AM - 12:30:00 PM Room: Ballroom B

Purpose: To develop a highly accurate and fast method for calculating electron beam dose distributions in Modulated Electron Radiation Therapy (MERT). Method: An algorithm has been developed for creating phase-space files at the exit of a linear accelerator for any arbitrary intensity and energy electron beam without the need of full Monte Carlo simulations. The model assigns each particle to one of the 3 following sources: primary, secondary collimator and electron collimator scatter. The primary component is derived by fast MC transport in air. The scatter components are derived by the use of MC pre-calculated leaf kernels. Each kernel includes the fluence distribution, energy distribution and scatter probability of generating an electron from a leaf. The original position is sampled from Gaussian or uniform distributions. The direction is estimated by geometrical means. According to the projection of the direction, a particle is rejected if it is expected to suffer a leaf-hit. A leaf-hit counter is used to calculate the output of scatter particles based on the pre-calculated scatter probabilities. To account for multiple coulomb scattering in air a MC-corrected version of the Fermi-Eyges scattering theory was implemented. Results: Depth and profile dose distributions were derived for the largest and smallest square field sizes, as well as for irregular and off-axis fields. The model agreed with full MC dose distributions within 3% in all cases. Output at the depth of maximum dose exhibited discrepancies less than 2.6% in all cases. The model was 16-22 times faster in generating a phase-space file than a full MC simulation with the BEAMnrc code. Conclusions: Fast, dynamic electron beam calculations open up the possibility for real time delivery of MERT in the clinic and renew interest in electron beam therapy.

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