Program Information
Is It Feasible to Use Manufacturer-Installed Pre-Configured Radiation Beams in a Commercial Treatment Planning System?
G Ding, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Presentations
SU-I-GPD-T-397 (Sunday, July 30, 2017) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Room: Exhibit Hall
Purpose: After a Linac is installed, it is common practice for Linac users to configure each beam in their commercial treatment planning system using data measured in-house. This process uses considerable resources. A recent unofficial survey among Varian TrueBeam users confirmed that some users rely on manufacturer-supplied beam data for beam configuration. Since current Linac technology is able to adjust each treatment beam to meet pre-determined specifications, it may be feasible to use pre-configured beams installed by the manufacturer in a commercial treatment planning system.
Methods: The characteristics of manufacturer pre-configured beams can be confirmed by comparing experimentally measured beam data with that provided by the manufactures. In this work, beam data for two recently installed TrueBeamâ„¢ units were studied. During installation, each beam was tuned to meet its manufacturer-supplied specifications. Beam data were measured separately by an independent physics consulting company and by local clinical physicists. Data were then compared to those provided by the manufacturer. Data compared included depth-dose curves, dose profiles and relative output factor as a function of field size and beam modifier.
Results: Agreement between measured and manufacturer-supplied beam data was found to be < 1-2% which was within the uncertainty of experimental measurements.
Conclusion: Since each beam from a specific Linac model can be standardized, it is now feasible to use manufacturer-installed pre-configured beams in a commercial treatment planning system. The user’s tasks will be to perform beam validation and end-to-end tests instead of measuring beam data and configuring the beams. This framework not only reduces potential beam commissioning errors but also increases Linac usage life.
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