An algorithm to calculate a collapsed arc dose matrix in volumetric modulated arc therapy

• Published in: Medical physics (Lancaster) 2013-07, Vol.40 (7), p.071724-n/a
• Main Authors: Arumugam, Sankar, Xing, Aitang, Jameson, Michael, Holloway, Lois
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: algorithm; ALGORITHMS; COMPUTER CODES; Computer software; Conformal radiation treatment; Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific applications; Dose‐volume analysis; DOSIMETRY; Dosimetry/exposure assessment; Drug delivery; Feasibility Studies; Humans; Image guided radiation therapy; Intensity modulated radiation therapy; ionisation chambers; IONIZATION CHAMBERS; LINEAR ACCELERATORS; medical computing; Multileaf collimators; PHOTON BEAMS; PLANNING; QUALITY ASSURANCE; Radiation detectors; Radiation Dosage; RADIATION DOSES; RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY; radiation therapy; Radiation treatment; RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE; Radiometry; RADIOTHERAPY; Radiotherapy Dosage; Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted - methods; Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted - standards; Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated - methods; Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated - standards; Reference Standards; Reproducibility of Results; Therapeutic applications, including brachytherapy; VALIDATION; VERIFICATION; VMAT
• ISSN: 0094-2405; 2473-4209
• DOI: 10.1118/1.4810964

Purpose: The delivery of volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) is more complex than other conformal radiotherapy techniques. In this work, the authors present the feasibility of performing routine verification of VMAT delivery using a dose matrix measured by a gantry mounted 2D ion chamber array and corresponding dose matrix calculated by an inhouse developed algorithm. Methods: Pinnacle, v9.0, treatment planning system (TPS) was used in this study to generate VMAT plans for a 6 MV photon beam from an Elekta-Synergy linear accelerator. An algorithm was developed and implemented with inhouse computer code to calculate the dose matrix resulting from a VMAT arc in a plane perpendicular to the beam at isocenter. The algorithm was validated using measurement of standard patterns and clinical VMAT plans with a 2D ion chamber array. The clinical VMAT plans were also validated using ArcCHECK measurements. The measured and calculated dose matrices were compared using gamma (γ) analysis with 3%/3 mm criteria and γ tolerance of 1. Results: The dose matrix comparison of standard patterns has shown excellent agreement with the meanγ pass rate 97.7 (σ = 0.4)%. The validation of clinical VMAT plans using the dose matrix predicted by the algorithm and the corresponding measured dose matrices also showed good agreement with the mean γ pass rate of 97.6 (σ = 1.6)%. The validation of clinical VMAT plans using ArcCHECK measurements showed a mean pass rate of 95.6 (σ = 1.8)%. Conclusions: The developed algorithm was shown to accurately predict the dose matrix, in a plane perpendicular to the beam, by considering all possible leaf trajectories in a VMAT delivery. This enables the verification of VMAT delivery using a 2D array detector mounted on a treatment head.