Verification of monitoring unit calculations for the 3D conformal radiotherapy treatment planning system

Abstract

The present work aims to validate an Independent Calculation of Monitoring Units (ICMU) software developed to accurately calculate the number of Monitoring Units (MU) used in radiation treatment. The calculation was performed for the photon beam with a variety of nominal energies (6 MV − 18 MV) and filed size ranging from 3 × 3 cm2 to 40 × 40 cm2. Two set-up conventions of treatment techniques were tested, a constant source to surface distance (SSD) and an isocentric set-up with a constant source to axis distance (SAD). The ICMU software was written in C-sharp (C #), using the equivalent square field size concept to calculate the radiation field quantities and connects to a database containing measurements quantities such as Tissue Phantom ratio (TPR) and Output Factors (OFs). The ICMU was successfully validated by comparing it to the Treatment Planning System (TPS) or CMS Monitor Unit Calculations (CMS_MU). The required standards were satisfactorily met (5.0%).