Proton Monte Carlo in the clinic

Proton Monte Carlo dose calculation has been implemented clinically for use in parallel to a commercial treatment planning system at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA. Treatment heads were modeled in detail and a software link was created between the treatment machine control system and the Monte Carlo program to transfer information about the treatment head settings. To describe the patient anatomy, Hounsfield Units were converted into materials with explicit element composition and density. A link of the Monte Carlo program to the departmental patient database and the commercial planning system was established to import treatment information. This presentation gives a roadmap to clinical implementation of Monte Carlo dose calculation covering all relevant aspects.