Program Information

Is Monte Carlo Dose Calculation Method Necessary for Cyberknife Brain Treatment Planning?

L Wang*, E Fourkal , S Hayes , L Jin , C Ma , Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA

Presentations

SU-E-T-224 Sunday 3:00PM - 6:00PM Room: Exhibit Hall

Purpose:

To study the dosimetric difference resulted in using the pencil beam algorithm instead of Monte Carlo (MC) methods for tumors adjacent to the skull.

Methods:

We retrospectively calculated the dosimetric differences between RT and MC algorithms for brain tumors treated with CyberKnife located adjacent to the skull for 18 patients (total of 27 tumors). The median tumor sizes was 0.53-cc (range 0.018-cc to 26.2-cc). The absolute mean distance from the tumor to the skull was 2.11 mm (range -17.0 mm to 9.2 mm). The dosimetric variables examined include the mean, maximum, and minimum doses to the target, the target coverage (TC) and conformality index. The MC calculation used the same MUs as the RT dose calculation without further normalization and 1% statistical uncertainty. The differences were analyzed by tumor size and distance from the skull.

Results:

The TC was generally reduced with the MC calculation (24 out of 27 cases). The average difference in TC between RT and MC was 3.3% (range 0.0% to 23.5%). When the TC was deemed unacceptable, the plans were re-normalized in order to increase the TC to 99%. This resulted in a 6.9% maximum change in the prescription isodose line. The maximum changes in the mean, maximum, and minimum doses were 5.4 %, 7.7%, and 8.4%, respectively, before re-normalization. When the TC was analyzed with regards to target size, it was found that the worst coverage occurred with the smaller targets (0.018-cc). When the TC was analyzed with regards to the distance to the skull, there was no correlation between proximity to the skull and TC between the RT and MC plans.

Conclusions:

For smaller targets (< 4.0-cc), MC should be used to re-evaluate the dose coverage after RT is used for the initial dose calculation in order to ensure target coverage.

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