Radiotherapy treatment planning with Monte Carlo on a distributed system

Author

Chauvie, Stephane ; Scielzo, Giuseppe

Author_Institution

Dept. of Medical Phys., Ordine Mauriziano, Torino, Italy

Volume

3

fYear

2003

fDate

19-25 Oct. 2003

Firstpage

1765

Abstract

Monte Carlo methods have been used extensively in the verification of dose calculation since offer a better accuracy respect to analytical algorithms. The most severe obstacle in application to clinical practice is the high time needed for calculations. We have studied a high performance network of personal computer as a realistic alternative to a high-costs dedicated parallel hardware to be used in clinical practice as instruments of evaluation of challenging IMRT and 3D-CRT treatment plans. The run of the complete simulation showed that the time needed for calculation decreased linearly increasing the number of distributed processors. The good scalability trend allows both statistically significant accuracy and good time performances. The scalability of the Beowulf Cluster system offers a new instrument for dose calculation that could be used in clinical practice.

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; dosimetry; medical computing; microcomputers; radiation therapy; 3D-CRT treatment plans; Beowulf Cluster system; Monte Carlo methods; clinical practice; distributed system; dose calculation; intensity modulated radiation therapy; personal computer; radiotherapy treatment planning; Biomedical imaging; Hardware; Instruments; Linear accelerators; Microcomputers; Monte Carlo methods; Object oriented modeling; Optical modulation; Physics; Scalability;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record, 2003 IEEE

ISSN

1082-3654

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8257-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NSSMIC.2003.1352220

Filename

1352220