Dosimetric evaluation of the BlueFrame-FiMe treatment planning system: Results of IAEA-TECDOC-1540

Acceptance testing of a new treatment planning system BlueFrame, from FiMe (Argentine) was performed to verify if it meets the specifications as defined by the manufacturer. The methodology suggested by the IAEA Tecdoc 1540 was applied and the results were summarized in graphs and tables as proposed in such the document. The set of tests were performed by both the manufacturer and the final user, and focused on the accuracy of dosimetric calculations during type and site testing. The definitions of tests and specifications follow the standard IEC 62083. This paper shows the accuracy of dosimetry calculations for 6MV photon beams comparing measured and calculated dose, following the criteria established in the Tecdoc 1540. Different beam configurations (open, wedged, asymmetric, irregular fields) as well as presence of heterogeneities or homogeneous phantom were tested. Dosimetric data employed in this work are found in the CD ROM accompanying the Tecdoc; however, we also performed measurements in a 6MV photon beam from a Siemens MD2 linac. The main algorithm implemented in the commercial BlueFrame TPS is a divergent pencil beam convolution model, with grid sizes 4x4 mm{sup 2} and 8x8 mm{sup 2}. The convolution is done in the time domain rather than in the frequency domain in order to avoid restrictions imposed by the Fourier transform. The pencil beam is obtained from the PDD table input to the system and produced by measurements, by using the method of automatic deconvolution