A Monte Carlo model of photon beams used in radiation therapy

A generic Monte Carlo model of a photon therapy machine is described. The model, known as McRad, is based on EGS4 and has been in use since 1991. Its primary function has been the characterization of the incident photon fluence for use by dose calculation algorithms. The accuracy of McRad is examined by comparing the dose distributions in a water phantom generated using only the Monte Carlo data with measured dose distributions for two machines in our clinic; a 6 MV Varian Clinac 600C and the 15 MV beam from a Clinac 2100C. The Monte Carlo generated dose distributions are computed using a dose calculation algorithm based on the use of differential pencil beam kernels. It was found that the match to measured data could be improved if the model is tuned by adjusting the energy of the electron beam incident on the target. The beam profiles were found to be more sensitive indicators of the electron beam energy than the depth dose curves. Beyond the depths reached by contaminant electrons, the computed and measured depth dose curves agree to better than 1%. The comparison of beam profiles indicate that in regions up to within 1 cm of the field edge, the measured and computed doses generally agree to within 2%-3%.