Particle-beam-dependent optimization for Monte Carlo simulation in hadrontherapy using tetrahedral geometries.

In this study, the experiments carried out on a multi-layer computational phantom, and a thorax geometry, show that by applying our method on a coarse mesh, we offer a better dose distribution inside the tumor compared to other density mapping methods, in the same level of detail. This is due to the reduction of the water equivalent path length error from 9.65 $mm$ to 0.62 $mm$ in the case the multi-layer phantom, and from 2.42 $mm$ to 0.48 $mm$ for the thorax geometry. Moreover, a similar dose coverage is obtained with refined tetrahedral meshes. As a consequence of the reduction of the number of tetrahedrons, computational time is found to be 25\% shorter than both the refined tetrahedral mesh and the voxel-based structure in most cases. Using a coarse tetrahedral mesh to have accurate dose distributions on a given target is feasible as long as the water equivalent path length in the direction of the beam is respected. PMID: 29893292 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - Category: Physics Authors: Tags: Phys Med Biol Source Type: research