Comparison of dose calculation algorithms with Monte Carlo methods for photon arcs

The objective of this study is to seek an accurate and efficient method to calculate the dose distribution of a photon arc. The algorithms tested include Monte Carlo, pencil beam kernel (PK), and collapsed cone convolution (CCC). For the Monte Carlo dose calculation, EGS4/DOSXYZ was used. The SRCXYZ source code associated with the DOSXYZ was modified so that the gantry angle of a photon beam would be sampled uniformly within the arc range about an isocenter to simulate a photon arc. Specifically, photon beams (6/18 MV, 4 × 4 and 10 × 10   cm 2 ) described by a phase space file generated by BEAM (MCPHS), or by two point sources with different photon energy spectra (MCDIV) were used. These methods were used to calculate three‐dimensional (3‐D) distributions in a PMMA phantom, a cylindrical water phantom, and a phantom with lung inhomogeneity. A commercial treatment planning system was also used to calculate dose distributions in these phantoms using equivalent tissue air ratio (ETAR), PK and CCC algorithms for inhomogeneity corrections. Dose distributions for a photon arc in these phantoms were measured using a RK ion chamber and radiographic films. For homogeneous phantoms, the measured results agreed well ( ∼ 2 % error) with predictions by the Monte Carlo simulations (MCPHS and MCDIV) and the treatment planning system for the 180 ° and 360 ° photon arcs. For the dose distribution in the phantom with lung inhomogeneity with a 90 ° photon arc, the Monte Carlo calculations agreed with the measurements within 2%, while the treatment planning system using ETAR, PK and CCC underestimated or overestimated the dose inside the lung inhomogeneity from 6% to 12%.