A flexible Monte Carlo tool for patient or phantom specific calculations: Comparison with preliminary validation measurements

The Dose Planning Method (DPM) is one of several fast Monte Carlo (MC) computer codes designed to produce an accurate dose calculation for advanced clinical applications. We have developed a flexible machine modeling process and validation tests for open-field and IMRT calculations. To complement the DPM code, a practical and versatile source model has been developed, whose parameters are derived from a standard set of planning system commissioning measurements. The primary photon spectrum and the spectrum resulting from the flattening filter are modeled by a Fatigue function, cut-off by a multiplying Fermi function, which effectively regularizes the difficult energy spectrum determination process. Commonly-used functions are applied to represent the off-axis softening, increasing primary fluence with increasing angle ('the horn effect'), and electron contamination. The patient dependent aspect of the MC dose calculation utilizes the multi-leaf collimator (MLC) leaf sequence file exported from the treatment planning system DICOM output, coupled with the source model, to derive the particle transport. This model has been commissioned for Varian 2100C 6 MV and 18 MV photon beams using percent depth dose, dose profiles, and output factors. A 3-D conformal plan and an IMRT plan delivered to an anthropomorphic thorax phantom were used to benchmark the model. The calculated results were compared to Pinnacle v7.6c results and measurements made using radiochromic film and thermoluminescent detectors (TLD).