Dose-volume histogram quality assurance for linac-based treatment planning systems
Dose-volume histograms provide key information to radiation oncologists when they assess the adequacy of a patient treatment plan in radiation therapy. It is important therefore that all clinically relevant data be accurate. In this article we present the first quality assurance routine involving a...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
2010-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Medical Physics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.jmp.org.in/article.asp?issn=0971-6203;year=2010;volume=35;issue=4;spage=197;epage=201;aulast=Gossman |
| Summary: | Dose-volume histograms provide key information to radiation oncologists when they assess the adequacy of a patient treatment plan in radiation therapy. It is important therefore that all clinically relevant data be accurate. In this article we present the first quality assurance routine involving a direct comparison of planning system results with the results obtained from independent hand calculations. Given a known three-dimensional (3-D) structure such as a parallelepiped, a simple beam arrangement, and known physics beam data, a time-efficient and reproducible method for verifying the accuracy of volumetric statistics (DVH) from a radiation therapy treatment planning system (TPS) can be employed rapidly, satisfying the QA requirements for (TPS) commissioning, upgrades, and annual checks. Using this method, the maximum disagreement was only 1.7% for 6 MV and 1.3% for 18 MV photon energies. The average accuracy was within 0.6% for 6 MV and 0.4% for 18 MV for all depth-dose results. A 2% disagreement was observed with the treatment planning system DVH from defined volume comparison to the known structure dimensions. |
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| ISSN: | 0971-6203 1998-3913 |