Technical note: In silico benchmarking of the linear energy transfer-based functionalities for carbon ion beams in a...

The increasing number of studies dealing with linear energy transfer (LET)-based evaluation and optimization in the field of carbon ion radiotherapy (CIRT) indicates the rising demand for LET implementation in commercial treatment planning systems (TPS). Benchmarking studies could play a key role in detecting (and thus preventing) computation errors prior implementing such functionalities in a TPS.

This in silico study was conducted to benchmark the following two LET-related functionalities in a commercial TPS against Monte Carlo simulations: (1) dose averaged LET (LET_d ) scoring and (2) physical dose filtration based on LET for future LET-based treatment plan evaluation and optimization studies.

The LET_d scoring and LET-based dose filtering (in which the deposited dose can be separated into the dose below and above the user specified LET threshold) functionalities for carbon ions in the research version RayStation (RS) 9A-IonPG TPS (RaySearch Laboratories, Sweden) were benchmarked against GATE/Geant4 simulations. Pristine Bragg peaks (BPs) and cuboid targets, positioned at different depths in a homogeneous water phantom and a setup with heterogeneity were used for this study.

For all setups (homogeneous and heterogeneous), the mean absolute (and relative) LET_d difference was less than 1 keV/ $$ m (3.5%) in the plateau and target and less than 2 keV/ $$ m (8.3%) in the fragmentation tail. The maximum local differences were 4 and 6 keV/ $$ m, respectively. The mean absolute (and relative) physical dose differences for both low- and high-LET doses were less than 1 cGy (1.5%) in the plateau, target and tail with a maximum absolute difference of 2 cGy.

No computation error was found in the tested functionalities except for LET_d in lateral direction outside the target, showing the limitation of the implemented monochrome model in the tested TPS version.