A multi-centre analytical study of small field output factor calculations in radiotherapy. (April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chełmiński, Krzysztof; Bulski, Wojciech
• Is Part Of: Physics and imaging in radiation oncology. Volume 6(2018)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 4
• Publication Date: 2018-04
• Subjects: Computer-assisted radiotherapy planning -- Intensity-modulated radiotherapy -- Particle accelerators -- Dosimetry audit -- Small field dosimetry; Radiotherapy -- Periodicals; Radiation dosimetry -- Periodicals; Cancer -- Imaging -- Periodicals; Oncology -- Periodicals; 615.842
• DOI: 10.1016/j.phro.2018.03.001
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2405-6316

Abstract

Abstract: An audit methodology was developed and applied for output factor (OF) calculations in radiotherapy. The auditees were asked to calculate OFs for field sizes from 10 × 10 cm 2 to 2 × 2 cm 2 . Sixty five beams were audited; missing reference OFs were interpolated. The calculated OFs were in 73% of cases higher than the reference data. The smaller the field size, the higher the overestimations which were observed in the higher fraction of cases. Treatment planning systems generally overestimated OFs for small fields. The reference dataset helped radiotherapy centres to identify discrepancies which were higher than typical.