Abstract
Our objective in this study was to evaluate the variation in the doses delivered among institutions due to dose calculation inaccuracies in whole breast radiotherapy. We have developed practical procedures for quality assurance (QA) of radiation treatment planning systems. These QA procedures are designed to be performed easily at any institution and to permit comparisons of results across institutions. The dose calculation accuracy was evaluated across seven institutions using various irradiation conditions. In some conditions, there was a >3 % difference between the calculated dose and the measured dose. The dose calculation accuracy differs among institutions because it is dependent on both the dose calculation algorithm and beam modeling. The QA procedures in this study are useful for verifying the accuracy of the dose calculation algorithm and of the beam model before clinical use for whole breast radiotherapy.
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Acknowledgments
This study was performed by the Medical Physics Working Group in the Radiation Therapy Study Group of the Japan Clinical Oncology Group. It was supported in part by the National Cancer Center Research and Development Fund (23-A-21).
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Hatanaka, S., Miyabe, Y., Tohyama, N. et al. Dose calculation accuracies in whole breast radiotherapy treatment planning: a multi-institutional study. Radiol Phys Technol 8, 200–208 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12194-015-0308-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12194-015-0308-3