Monte Carlo photon beam modeling and commissioning for radiotherapy dose calculation algorithm

Abstract The aim of the present work was a Monte Carlo verification of the Multi-grid superposition (MGS) dose calculation algorithm implemented in the CMS XiO (Elekta) treatment planning system and used to calculate the dose distribution produced by photon beams generated by the linear accelerator (linac) Siemens Primus. The BEAMnrc/DOSXYZnrc (EGSnrc package) Monte Carlo model of the linac head was used as a benchmark. In the first part of the work, the BEAMnrc was used for the commissioning of a 6 MV photon beam and to optimize the linac description to fit the experimental data. In the second part, the MGS dose distributions were compared with DOSXYZnrc using relative dose error comparison and γ -index analysis (2%/2 mm, 3%/3 mm), in different dosimetric test cases. Results show good agreement between simulated and calculated dose in homogeneous media for square and rectangular symmetric fields. The γ -index analysis confirmed that for most cases the MGS model and EGSnrc doses are within 3% or 3 mm.