Extension of the Particle Therapy Simulation Framework to Hospital Information Systems and Multi-grid Environments

Aso, T.; Maeda, Yoshikazu; Iwai, G.; Takase, Wataru; Sasaki, Takashi; Watase, Y.; Yamashita, Tomohiro; Akagi, Takashi; Nakano, Yoshiaki

doi:10.1109/iccse.2012.39

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Codes to simulate proton therapy include VMCPro, 7 GATE, 8 and PTSIM. 9 In spite of their value, Monte Carlo codes are currently underutilized mainly because of their complexity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental validation of the TOPAS Monte Carlo system for passive scattering proton therapy

et al. 2013

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Purpose: TOPAS (TOol for PArticle Simulation) is a particle simulation code recently developed with the specific aim of making Monte Carlo simulations user-friendly for research and clinical physicists in the particle therapy community. The authors present a thorough and extensive experimental validation of Monte Carlo simulations performed with TOPAS in a variety of setups relevant for proton therapy applications. The set of validation measurements performed in this work represents an overall end-to-end testing strategy recommended for all clinical centers planning to rely on TOPAS for quality assurance or patient dose calculation and, more generally, for all the institutions using passive-scattering proton therapy systems. Methods: The authors systematically compared TOPAS simulations with measurements that are performed routinely within the quality assurance (QA) program in our institution as well as experiments specifically designed for this validation study. First, the authors compared TOPAS simulations with measurements of depth-dose curves for spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) fields. Second, absolute dosimetry simulations were benchmarked against measured machine output factors (OFs). Third, the authors simulated and measured 2D dose profiles and analyzed the differences in terms of field flatness and symmetry and usable field size. Fourth, the authors designed a simple experiment using a half-beam shifter to assess the effects of multiple Coulomb scattering, beam divergence, and inverse square attenuation on lateral and longitudinal dose profiles measured and simulated in a water phantom. Fifth, TOPAS' capabilities to simulate time dependent beam delivery was benchmarked against dose rate functions (i.e., dose per unit time vs time) measured at different depths inside an SOBP field. Sixth, simulations of the charge deposited by protons fully stopping in two different types of multilayer Faraday cups (MLFCs) were compared with measurements to benchmark the nuclear interaction models used in the simulations. Results: SOBPs' range and modulation width were reproduced, on average, with an accuracy of +1, −2 and ±3 mm, respectively. OF simulations reproduced measured data within ±3%. Simulated 2D dose-profiles show field flatness and average field radius within ±3% of measured profiles. The field symmetry resulted, on average in ±3% agreement with commissioned profiles. TOPAS accuracy in reproducing measured dose profiles downstream the half beam shifter is better than 2%. Dose rate function simulation reproduced the measurements within ∼2% showing that the four-dimensional modeling of the passively modulation system was implement correctly and millimeter accuracy can be achieved in reproducing measured data. For MLFCs simulations, 2% agreement was found between TOPAS and both sets of experimental measurements. The overall results show that TOPAS simulations are within the clinical accepted tolerances for all QA measurements performed at our institution. Conclusions: Our Monte Carlo simulations reproduced accurat...

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“…Codes to simulate proton therapy include VMCPro, 7 GATE, 8 and PTSIM. 9 In spite of their value, Monte Carlo codes are currently underutilized mainly because of their complexity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental validation of the TOPAS Monte Carlo system for passive scattering proton therapy

et al. 2013

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“…Particle therapy simulation framework (PTSIM) ( 82 ) is a Geant4 software tool which can be used to model a complete hadron therapy treatment, including beam delivery system, a treatment head, and patient data obtained from CT images. It has been used for carbon therapy simulations with the facilities in Japan.…”

Section: Codesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Range Verification Methods in Particle Therapy: Underlying Physics and Monte Carlo Modeling

Kraan

2015

Front. Oncol.

135

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Hadron therapy allows for highly conformal dose distributions and better sparing of organs-at-risk, thanks to the characteristic dose deposition as function of depth. However, the quality of hadron therapy treatments is closely connected with the ability to predict and achieve a given beam range in the patient. Currently, uncertainties in particle range lead to the employment of safety margins, at the expense of treatment quality. Much research in particle therapy is therefore aimed at developing methods to verify the particle range in patients. Non-invasive in vivo monitoring of the particle range can be performed by detecting secondary radiation, emitted from the patient as a result of nuclear interactions of charged hadrons with tissue, including β+ emitters, prompt photons, and charged fragments. The correctness of the dose delivery can be verified by comparing measured and pre-calculated distributions of the secondary particles. The reliability of Monte Carlo (MC) predictions is a key issue. Correctly modeling the production of secondaries is a non-trivial task, because it involves nuclear physics interactions at energies, where no rigorous theories exist to describe them. The goal of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of various aspects in modeling the physics processes for range verification with secondary particles produced in proton, carbon, and heavier ion irradiation. We discuss electromagnetic and nuclear interactions of charged hadrons in matter, which is followed by a summary of some widely used MC codes in hadron therapy. Then, we describe selected examples of how these codes have been validated and used in three range verification techniques: PET, prompt gamma, and charged particle detection. We include research studies and clinically applied methods. For each of the techniques, we point out advantages and disadvantages, as well as clinical challenges still to be addressed, focusing on MC simulation aspects.

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“…The treatment parameters including a treatment head configuration are referred to as RT-Plan or RT-IonPlan. The PTSIM imports the treatment parameters from RT-Plan or RT-IonPlan to ensure the same condition between the treatment planning system and the particle treatment machine [8]. The other RT dataset is the RT-StructureSet, which records the series of regions of interest (ROIs).…”

Section: B Materials Assignment In a Patient Geometrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We have developed a GUI based Web service for assisting users to input necessary parameters for customizing a treatment port and performing the simulation on grid environments. The parallelization is handled by using the Universal Grid Interface [8]. The developed service is under study on KEK central computing system for further improvements.…”

Section: Web Interface With Universal Grid Interfacementioning

confidence: 99%

Recent updates and plan in Geant4 based particle therapy system simulation framework

Aso

Akagi

Iwai

et al. 2013

2013 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (2013 NSS/MIC)

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Particle therapy system simulation framework, PT-SIM, is a simulation framework based on Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation. It has been developed in the project,"Development of simulation framework for advanced radiotherapy", funded by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) in the program of Core Research for Evolutional Research and Technology (CREST), from 2003 to 2010. The PTSIM has provided a common platform to model proton and ion therapy facilities, allowing users who are not Geant4 experts to accurately and efficiently run Geant4 simulations with the pre-build configurations. Efforts on further development of PTSIM are still under way to include more functionality and improve the performance. The PTSIM has been upgraded with the extensions in the DICOM-RT interface to coordinate with hospital information system, the Web interface with universal grid environment, etc. In this paper, we report on our activities about these updates and plan for extending the PTSIM functionality with new requirements from users.

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Extension of the Particle Therapy Simulation Framework to Hospital Information Systems and Multi-grid Environments

Cited by 7 publications

References 11 publications

Experimental validation of the TOPAS Monte Carlo system for passive scattering proton therapy

Experimental validation of the TOPAS Monte Carlo system for passive scattering proton therapy

Range Verification Methods in Particle Therapy: Underlying Physics and Monte Carlo Modeling

Recent updates and plan in Geant4 based particle therapy system simulation framework

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