A practical tool to evaluate dose distributions using radiochromic film in radiation oncology

Abstract Purpose Triple channel algorithm and specific procedures make more reliable radiochromic dosimetry for treatment planning verification and quality assurance in radiation therapy. A tool to obtain radiochromic dose distributions and compare them with the ones resulting from a treatment planning system was developed and applied. Methods The tool was developed as Microsoft Excel macro; it builds dose calibration curves against net optical density of Gafchromic EBT3 film, produces axial, coronal and sagittal dose maps and allows to evaluate them against dose distributions calculated by the Varian treatment planning system Eclipse using gamma index and gamma angle. Results The net optical density standard errors of estimate of calibration curves at 6 MV Varian DBX600 linac energy were 0.2%, 0.4% and 0.2% for the red, green and blue channels. Tests of these curves by means of three independent eight dose points measurement series, at 15 MV and 6 MV Varian 2100C linac and at 6 MV DBX600 linac energies, showed less than 2% of dose errors for the red channel and less than 3% for the green channel in the range 100–450 cGy. The comparisons between dose distributions from Gafchromic EBT3 triple channel algorithm and the ones from Eclipse analytic anisotropic algorithm (AAA) showed values of gamma index 95th percentile between 0.6 and 1.0. Conclusion The obtained results encourage the application of this tool in radiation therapy quality assurance.