Abstract:Purpose
Seasonal trends in linear accelerator output have been reported by at least one institution and data have suggested that they may be present at our center as well. The purpose of this work was to characterize these trends and determine whether local environmental conditions within the treatment rooms may be impacting the linear accelerators and/or the quality control (QC) dosimeter.
Methods
Runtime plots of daily output data, acquired using an in‐house ion chamber‐based device, over 3 yr and for 15 lin… Show more
“…Output increase per year Pearson et al (2020) [3] 8 Varian TrueBeams 3 years 3-4% Barnes and Greer (2017) [4] 1 Varian TrueBeam 5 months 3% Chan et al (2015) [6] 1 Varian Trilogy 5 years 3% Hossain (2014) [7] 1 Varian Trilogy and 2 iX Varian Linacs 3.5 years 2-4% Uddin (2012) [8] 3 Varian Linacs 4 years 2% Grattan and Hounsell (2011) [9] 4 Varian 2100 C/D 7 years 3% Luketina and Greig (2004) [10] 2 Varian 2100 C/D 5.5 years 2.5% Bartolac et al (2019) [11] 15 Linacs of different makes and models 3 years 2-3% Bolt et al (2018) [13] 27 Varian TrueBeams 6 months 2.1% [16] 8 Linacs of different makes and models 5 years 2% over time). It is known that increasing the output measurement frequency and decreasing the action level help to improve the quality of a radiotherapy treatment [17].…”
Section: Authors Linacs Under Investigation Observation Periodmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…It is reported that the Linacs output does not remain constant over time but shows significant changes during the course of a year [3]- [9] and even seasonal variations [7,11], that must be corrected to keep output within the established tolerance limits. The recommended tolerances for daily and monthly output constancy checks are typically ±3% and ±2%, respectively [12], although a more restrictive limit is generally applied to daily tests executed with MPC [3,4].…”
The aim of this work is to find an effective mathematical model to identify the output variations of TrueBeam (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA, U.S.A.) linear accelerators (Linacs), using the daily output measurements performed with Machine Performance Check (MPC) tool. All daily output data, measured with MPC from July 2020 to October 2021, were exported and plotted for all energies investigated. After identifying the dates of dose calibration, the measurement period was divided into four and three sub-periods for photon and electron beams, respectively, common to the three Linacs; straight lines were applied to the data and slopes were analysed. Finally, all the output data were merged and a parameters optimisation process was performed that minimised the differences between output values measured by MPC and output values calculated by model. The output of Linacs under examination showed an increase for all photon and electron energies in agreement with the literature findings. MPC output trends were well represented by means of a linear mathematical model and the angular coefficients of the regression lines characterized the rate of daily output increase. The optimisation of the model provided an optimised angular coefficient for photon (0.0126% per day) and electron (0.0128% per day) beams. In this study, linear regression analysis is used to identify the TrueBeam output drift. The proposed model fitting daily MPC output data allows to define the right timing for preventive beams calibrations offering a tool to improve dose control.
“…Output increase per year Pearson et al (2020) [3] 8 Varian TrueBeams 3 years 3-4% Barnes and Greer (2017) [4] 1 Varian TrueBeam 5 months 3% Chan et al (2015) [6] 1 Varian Trilogy 5 years 3% Hossain (2014) [7] 1 Varian Trilogy and 2 iX Varian Linacs 3.5 years 2-4% Uddin (2012) [8] 3 Varian Linacs 4 years 2% Grattan and Hounsell (2011) [9] 4 Varian 2100 C/D 7 years 3% Luketina and Greig (2004) [10] 2 Varian 2100 C/D 5.5 years 2.5% Bartolac et al (2019) [11] 15 Linacs of different makes and models 3 years 2-3% Bolt et al (2018) [13] 27 Varian TrueBeams 6 months 2.1% [16] 8 Linacs of different makes and models 5 years 2% over time). It is known that increasing the output measurement frequency and decreasing the action level help to improve the quality of a radiotherapy treatment [17].…”
Section: Authors Linacs Under Investigation Observation Periodmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…It is reported that the Linacs output does not remain constant over time but shows significant changes during the course of a year [3]- [9] and even seasonal variations [7,11], that must be corrected to keep output within the established tolerance limits. The recommended tolerances for daily and monthly output constancy checks are typically ±3% and ±2%, respectively [12], although a more restrictive limit is generally applied to daily tests executed with MPC [3,4].…”
The aim of this work is to find an effective mathematical model to identify the output variations of TrueBeam (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA, U.S.A.) linear accelerators (Linacs), using the daily output measurements performed with Machine Performance Check (MPC) tool. All daily output data, measured with MPC from July 2020 to October 2021, were exported and plotted for all energies investigated. After identifying the dates of dose calibration, the measurement period was divided into four and three sub-periods for photon and electron beams, respectively, common to the three Linacs; straight lines were applied to the data and slopes were analysed. Finally, all the output data were merged and a parameters optimisation process was performed that minimised the differences between output values measured by MPC and output values calculated by model. The output of Linacs under examination showed an increase for all photon and electron energies in agreement with the literature findings. MPC output trends were well represented by means of a linear mathematical model and the angular coefficients of the regression lines characterized the rate of daily output increase. The optimisation of the model provided an optimised angular coefficient for photon (0.0126% per day) and electron (0.0128% per day) beams. In this study, linear regression analysis is used to identify the TrueBeam output drift. The proposed model fitting daily MPC output data allows to define the right timing for preventive beams calibrations offering a tool to improve dose control.
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