3D Analysis of Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy Quality Assurance Measurement using a 2D Diode Array

Abstract

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) quality assurance (QA) is often performed using a 2D device and compares measured and computed fluence maps to determine if a field passes or fails certain dose and position criteria. The effects of a measured deviation to the 3D patient spatial dosimetry and dose volume histogram (DVH) are largely unknown because they cannot be analyzed using commercial 2D array IMRT QA systems. We report an in-house treatment planning system (TPS) PLanUNC based 3D IMRT QA analysis approach that has been used in our institution for the past ten years when 2D fluence map IMRT QA failed. In this approach the measured 2D fluence maps are imported back to PLanUNC and used to re-compute 3D patient dosimetry including DVHs. The 2D fluence map IMRT QA criteria is that the measured dose for 95% of the detectors is within 5% of the planned dose, and that the distance-to-agreement be within 4mm (5%/4mm). 22 IMRT plans that had at least one field fail initial QA using MapCHECK 2 are examined using our 3D QA approach. The DVH analysis shows that 19/22 plans that failed initial QA were within 2% of the planned target and critical structure DVHs. 3/22 IMRT plans were found to have DVH difference greater than 2%. The 3D analysis of 2D IMRT QA result shows that when a fluence map QA fails for a single field, often it is clinically insignificant in terms of patient 3D dosimetry