Monte-Carlo techniques for radiotherapy applications I: introduction and overview of the different Monte-Carlo codes

Abstract

Introduction: The dose calculation plays a crucial role in many aspects of contemporary clinical radiotherapy treatment planning process. It therefore goes without saying that the accuracy of the dose calculation is of very high importance. The gold standard for absorbed dose calculation is the Monte-Carlo algorithm. Methods: This first of two papers gives an overview of the main openly available and supported codes that have been widely used for radiotherapy simulations. Results: The paper aims to provide an overview of Monte-Carlo in the field of radiotherapy and point the reader in the right direction of work that could help them get started or develop their existing understanding and use of Monte-Carlo algorithms in their practice. Conclusions: It also serves as a useful companion to a curated collection of papers on Monte-Carlo that have been published in this journal.

Evaluating the performance of automated external contouring tool on dose calculation of treatment planning system

“…It is done by sampling appropriate quantities from the probability distributions governing the individual physical processes, using machine-generated random numbers. 16 2 Nooshin Banaee et al Since MC tracks the particles until they lose their energy, the volume in which this particle tracking is done might affect the calculated dose. In routine radiotherapy workflow, the volume of the patient is obtained with the external contour, and it is usually created by automated tools of the TPSs, causing some fluctuations on the contour and consequently creating a volume that can be different compared to the real value.…”

In-silico evaluation of the effect of set-up errors on dose delivery during mouse irradiations with a cell irradiator-based collimator system

“…Monte Carlo simulation of the irradiation system and phasespace generation MC beam modelling of our irradiation system, comprised of a custom-made lead collimator with 10 mm diameter apertures mounted into a cell irradiator, was performed and a phase-space le was produced in the EGSnrc [15,16], BEAMnrc [17], and DOSXYZnrc codes [18]. Veri cation of the simulations has been performed to ensure reliability of our MC modelled irradiation system for all irradiation conditions.…”

“…To create the MC mouse phantom model, the mouse image set (in DICOM format) was converted to a "egsphant" le (BEAMnrc-based phantom le [17]) (Fig. 1) using STATDOSE code (EGSnrc-based code [18,19]). According to the CT numbers in the image set, each voxel in the MC mouse phantom represents a particular type of mouse tissue with its associated electron density.…”

Comparison of neutron contamination in small photon fields of secondary collimator jaws and circular cones

“…To overcome the difficulties of the measurements, numerical simulations with Monte Carlo (MC) codes would allow a detailed analysis of each component of mixed fields with the aim to compensate for the lack of the precision in measurements. [9][10][11][12] The aim of this study is to calculate different neutron contamination parameters such as neutron fluence, neutron absorbed dose, and neutron equivalent dose in small 18 MV photon fields by MC MCNPX simulation and compare those created in presence of circular cones.…”

“…To overcome the difficulties of the measurements, numerical simulations with Monte Carlo (MC) codes would allow a detailed analysis of each component of mixed fields with the aim to compensate for the lack of the precision in measurements. 9–12…”