Dosimetric and Monte Carlo verification of jaws-only IMRT plans calculated by the Collapsed Cone Convolution algorithm for head and neck cancers

Abstract

Aim

The aim of this study is to verify the Prowess Panther jaws-only intensity modulated radiation therapy (JO-IMRT) treatment planning (TP) by comparing the TP dose distributions for head-and-neck (H&N) cancer with the ones simulated by Monte Carlo (MC).

Background

To date, dose distributions planned using JO-IMRT for H&N patients were found superior to the corresponding three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) plans. Dosimetry of the JO-IMRT plans were also experimentally verified using an ionization chamber, MapCHECK 2, and Octavius 4D and good agreements were shown.

Materials and methods

Dose distributions of 15 JO-IMRT plans of nasopharyngeal patients were recalculated using the EGSnrc Monte Carlo code. The clinical photon beams were simulated using the BEAMnrc. The absorbed dose to patients treated by fixed-field IMRT was computed using the DOSXYZnrc. The simulated dose distributions were then compared with the ones calculated by the Collapsed Cone Convolution (CCC) algorithm on the TPS, using the relative dose error comparison and the gamma index using global methods implemented in PTW-VeriSoft with 3%/3mm, 2%/2mm, 1%/1mm criteria.

Results

There is a good agreement between the MC and TPS dose. The average gamma passing rates were 93.3±3.1%, 92.8±3.2%, 92.4±3.4% based on the 3%/3mm, 2%/2mm, 1%/1mm criteria, respectively.

Conclusions

According to the results, it is concluded that the CCC algorithm was adequate for most of the IMRT H&N cases where the target was not immediately adjacent to the critical structures.