SU‐E‐J‐147: Monte Carlo Study of the Precision and Accuracy of Proton CT Reconstructed Relative Stopping Power Maps

Abstract

Purpose:The quantification of the intrinsic performances of proton computed tomography (pCT) as a modality for treatment planning in proton therapy. The performance of an ideal pCT scanner is studied as a function of various parameters.Methods:Using GATE/Geant4, we simulated an ideal pCT scanner and scans of several cylindrical phantoms with various tissue equivalent inserts of different sizes. Insert materials were selected in order to be of clinical relevance. Tomographic images were reconstructed using a filtered backprojection algorithm taking into account the scattering of protons into the phantom. To quantify the performance of the ideal pCT scanner, we study the precision and the accuracy with respect to the theoretical relative stopping power ratios (RSP) values for different beam energies, imaging doses, insert sizes and detector positions. The planning range uncertainty resulting from the reconstructed RSP is also assessed by comparison with the range of the protons in the analytically simulated phantoms.Results:The results indicate that pCT can intrinsically achieve RSP resolution below 1%, for most examined tissues at beam energies below 300 MeV and for imaging doses around 1 mGy. RSP maps accuracy of less than 0.5 % is observed for most tissue types within the studied dose range (0.2–1.5 mGy). Finally, the uncertainty in the proton range due to the accuracy of the reconstructed RSP map is well below 1%.Conclusion:This work explores the intrinsic performance of pCT as an imaging modality for proton treatment planning. The obtained results show that under ideal conditions, 3D RSP maps can be reconstructed with an accuracy better than 1%. Hence, pCT is a promising candidate for reducing the range uncertainties introduced by the use of X‐ray CT alongside with a semiempirical calibration to RSP.Supported by the DFG Cluster of Excellence Munich‐Centre for Advanced Photonics (MAP)