Optimization of an external beam radiotherapy treatment using GAMOS/Geant4

P. Arce*, J. I. Lagares, D. Perez-Astudillo, J. Apostolakis, G. Cosmo

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

During the last years the use of Geant4 [1] in medical physics is increasing. Today Geant4 offers the advantage of a well-validated set of physics models, a modern software technology and a big flexibility to tailor it to the user specific application. Nevertheless, as a software toolkit, Geant4 requires tailoring of the user application and a certain level of knowledge of the C++ programming language and interfaces that Geant4 provides. In the past, there has been also a lack of optimization studies and specialized techniques tailored for medical applications based on Geant4. GAMOS [2], the Geant4-based Architecture for Medicine- Oriented Simulations, facilitates the use of Geant4 by providing a simple script language that covers most of the needs of any medical physics simulation. Its modular and flexible design, based on the use of the plug-in technology, as well as a clear documentation and detailed examples, makes it easy to extend the framework to cover any extra need an expert user may have. A substantial effort has also been made to provide a comprehensive set of tools to help the user in the debugging and optimization of an application. We describe in this paper the studies and the techniques implemented in GAMOS aimed to optimize the simulation of a radiotherapy external beam application, including the propagation through the accelerator geometry and the calculation of the dose in voxelized phantoms.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWorld Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering
Subtitle of host publicationRadiation Oncology
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages794-797
Number of pages4
Edition1
ISBN (Print)9783642034725
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009
Externally publishedYes
EventWorld Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering: Radiation Oncology - Munich, Germany
Duration: 7 Sept 200912 Sept 2009

Publication series

NameIFMBE Proceedings
Number1
Volume25
ISSN (Print)1680-0737

Conference

ConferenceWorld Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering: Radiation Oncology
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityMunich
Period7/09/0912/09/09

Keywords

  • CPU optimization
  • Geant4
  • Monte Carlo
  • Radiotherapy

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