First European Workshop on Monte Carlo Treatment Planning

Abstract

The "First European Workshop on Monte Carlo treatment planning", was an initiative of the European working group on Monte Carlo treatment planning (EWG–MCTP). It was organised at Ghent University (Belgium) on 22–25October 2006. The meeting was very successful and was attended by 150 participants. The impressive list of invited speakers and the scientific contributions (posters and oral presentations) have led to a very interesting program, that was well appreciated by all attendants. In addition, the presence of seven vendors of commercial MCTP software systems provided serious added value to the workshop. For each vendor, a representative has given a presentation in a dedicated session, explaining the current status of their system. It is clear that, for "traditional" radiotherapy applications (using photon or electron beams), Monte Carlo dose calculations have become the state of the art, and are being introduced into almost all commercial treatment planning systems. Invited lectures illustrated that scientific challenges are currently associated with 4D applications (e.g. respiratory motion) and the introduction of MC dose calculations in inverse planning. But it was striking that the Monte Carlo technique is also becoming very important in more novel treatment modalities such as BNCT, hadron therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, Tomotherapy, etc. This emphasizes the continuous growing interest in MCTP. The people who attended the dosimetry session will certainly remember the high level discussion on the determination of correction factors for different ion chambers, used in small fields. The following proceedings will certainly confirm the high scientific level of the meeting. I would like to thank the members of the local organizing committee for all the hard work done before, during and after this meeting. The organisation of such an event is not a trivial task and it would not have been possible without the help of all my colleagues. I would also like to thank the European working group on MCTP (who formed the scientific committee of the workshop) for all their assistance, especially, concerning the evaluation of the abstracts and the reviewing of the current proceedings. I would also like to thank the sponsors, who really made this possible and who also elevated the level of the workshop. Presentations, poster files and photos are available on http://www.EWG-MCTP.ugent.be. Nick Reynaert Editor