Evaluation of 3D pre-treatment verification for volumetric modulated arc therapy plan in head region

Abstract

The development of pre-treatment QA tools contributes to the three dimension (3D) dose verification using the calculation software with the measured planar dose distribution. This research is aimed to evaluate the Sun Nuclear 3DVH software with Thermo luminescence dosimeter (TLD) measurement. The two VMAT patient plans (2.5 arcs) of 6 MV photons with different PTV locations were transferred to the Rando phantom images. The PTV of the first plan located in homogeneous area and vice versa in the second plan. For treatment planning process, the Rando phantom images were employed in optimization and calculation with the PTV, brain stem, lens and TLD position contouring. The verification plans were created, transferred to the ArcCHECK for measurement and calculated the 3D dose using 3DVH software. The range of the percent dose differences in both PTV and organ at risk (OAR) between TLD and 3DVH software of the first and the second plans were -2.09 to 3.87% and -1.39 to 6.88%, respectively. The mean percent dose differences for the PTV were 1.62% and 3.93% for the first and the second plans, respectively. In conclusion, the 3DVH software results show good agreement with TLD when the tumor located in the homogeneous area.