PENSSART, a new Monte Carlo system for quality control in radiotherapy

A new Monte Carlo system called PENSSART for PENELOPE Simulation for the Safety in Radiotherapy has been developed for quality control of the treatment plans. PENSSART is based on the 2006 release of PENELOPE that we have adapted to allow for the transport of particles in voxelized geometries. The new platform is built upon three main modules that help the user in the definition of the different control procedure steps. The purpose of this study was twofold. In a first part we have validated the beam implementation and the patient/phantom description in PENSSART. In a second part we have compared dose distributions obtained experimentally, with PENSSART and also with an algorithm usually used in clinical practice for treatment planning. The results demonstrate the usefulness of the developed system.