[Study on the Quick Daily Check for Medical Electron LINAC]

Area of Science:

• Medical Physics
• Radiation Oncology
• Imaging Technology

Background:

• Daily quality assurance (QA) is crucial for Linear Accelerator (Linac) safety and efficacy in cancer treatment.
• Current Linac QA methods can be time-consuming and require specialized equipment.
• Electronic Portal Imaging Devices (EPIDs) are widely available in radiation oncology departments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel, efficient daily check tool for Linacs utilizing EPIDs.
• To enable cross-center usability of Linac QA procedures.
• To assess the reliability and efficiency of the EPID-based tool compared to commercial QA devices.

Main Methods:

• Acquisition of multiple Electronic Portal Imaging Device (EPID) images of open rectangular fields.
• Development of an in-house automatic analysis software to derive key Linac daily check parameters from EPID images.
• Comparison of parameters derived from the EPID tool with those from commercial QA devices.

Main Results:

• The EPID-based daily check tool successfully derived key Linac parameters.
• Parameters calculated by the in-house tool demonstrated reliability comparable to commercial QA devices.
• The developed tool exhibited significantly higher measurement efficiency.

Conclusions:

• An EPID-based daily check tool offers a reliable and efficient alternative for Linac quality assurance.
• The developed automatic analysis software enables consistent and accurate Linac QA across different cancer centers.
• This approach enhances the practicality and accessibility of daily Linac QA procedures.