Posted on 15 May 2014
CEA LIST has contributed to the Prouesse R&D project by developing a Monte Carlo code for dose distribution calculations for protontherapy treatment planning. The goal was to increase calculation speed and precision, both in terms of geometry and dosimetry, to pave the way for future use in clinical settings.
Four types of physical interactions were implemented in the existing Penelope Monte Carlo code: elastic and inelastic electron and nuclear processes.
To ensure cross-section calculation, a specific module was developed for the elastic electron processes; the software developed was then compared with other well-known and reference Monte-Carlo-type codes, namely MCNPX and GEANT4.
A comparison with experimental results obtained from the Orsay protontherapy treatment center (CPO) located near Paris was used to validate the performance of this new code.
After final validation testing, the code could ultimately be integrated into a treatment planning system and used in clinical protontherapy centers.
