Commissioning of a 3D pretreatment quality-assurance system in volumetric techniques based in 2D detector arrays

Abstract

The present experience about intensity-modulated radiation therapy pre-treatment QA points to a paradigm shift oriented to metrics based in clinically relevant parameters. This work shows the commissioning of a QA system used in the verification of volumetric treatments based in 2D ion chamber arrays. This system accomplishes with the initial hypothesis making the dose calculation and reconstruction in actual patient anatomy possible from measurements taken during the verification process. Beam reference parameters are compared with those obtained with the system: absolute dose, output factors and relative dose distributions. Simple test cases are evaluated comparing dose-volume parameters and ion chamber-based measurements. Finally the system is applied to the verification of 12 actual clinical test cases, comparing ion chamber measurements, usual planar dose distributions analysis, dose-volume parameters from each anatomic site and 3D gamma tests. Results make the potential advantage of these systems clear compared with those based in traditional metrics.