Experimental evaluation of the accuracy of skin dose calculation for a commercial treatment planning system

J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2008 Jan 28;9(1):29-35. doi: 10.1120/jacmp.v9i1.2792.

Abstract

This work investigates the accuracy of skin dose calculations using the Eclipse treatment planning system. Skin dose was measured using micro-MOSFETs for a range of irradiation conditions (open fields, physical wedges, dynamic wedges, different SSDs) for 6MV and 10MV beams, and compared with the mean dose calculated to a 2mm thick "skin" structure for semi-cylindrical phantoms (representative of a neck or breast). Agreement between the calculated and measured skin dose values was better than +/-20% for 95% of all measured points (both 6MV and 10MV x-ray spectra). For a fixed geometry, the TPS correctly calculated relative changes in dose, showing that minimization of skin dose in IMRT will be effective in Eclipse.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Humans
  • Models, Biological*
  • Radiometry / methods*
  • Radiotherapy Dosage
  • Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Radiotherapy, Conformal / methods*
  • Relative Biological Effectiveness
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Skin Physiological Phenomena*