STUDY ON MONITORING UNIT EFFICIENCY OF FLATTENING-FILTER FREE PHOTON BEAM IN ASSOCIATION WITH TUMOR SIZE AND LOCATION
Kim, Dae Il;Kim, Jung-In;Yoo, Sook Hyun;Park, Jong Min;
ABSTRACT
To investigate monitoring unit (MU) efficiency and plan quality of volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) using flattening-filter free (FFF) photon beam in association with target size and location. A virtual patient was generated in Eclipse$^{TM}$ (ver. A10, Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, USA) treatment planning system. The length of major and minor axis in axial view was 50 cm and 30 cm, respectively. Cylindrical-shaped targets were generated inside that patient at the center (symmetric target) and in the periphery (asymmetric target, 7.5 cm away from the center of the patient to the right direction) of the virtual patient. The longitudinal length was 10 cm and the diameters were 2, 5, 10 and 15 cm. Total 8 targets were generated. RapidArc$^{TM}$ plans using TrueBeam STx$^{TM}$ were generated for each target. Two full arcs were used and the axis of rotation of the gantry was set to be at the center of the virtual patient. Total MU, homogeneity index (HI), target mean dose, the value of gradient measure and body mean dose were calculated. In the case of symmetric targets, averaged total MU of FFF plan was 23% and 19% higher than that of flattening filter (FF) plan when using 6 MV and 10 MV photons, respectively. The difference of HI, target mean dose, gradient measure and body mean dose between FF and FFF was less than 0.04, 2.6%, 0.1 cm and 2.2%, respectively. For the asymmetric targets, total MU of FFF plan was 21% and 32% was higher than that of FF when using 6 MV and 10 MV photons, respectively. The homogeneity of the target was always worse when using FFF than using FF. The maximum difference of HI was 0.22. The target mean dose of FFF was 3.2% and 4.1% higher than that of FF for the 6 MV and 10 MV, respectively. The difference of gradient measure was less than 0.1 cm. The body mean dose was higher when using FFF than FF about 4.2% and 2.8% for the 6 MV and 10 MV, respectively. No significant differences between VMAT plans of FFF beam and FF beam were observed in terms of quality of treatment plan. The HI was higher when using FFF 10 MV photons for the asymmetric targets. The MU was increased noticeably when using FFF photon beams.
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