A review of electron beam dose calculation algorithms

The advantage of accurate dose calculation in radiotherapy is the availability of better quality information with which to prescribe treatments, and also increased confidence when optimisation procedures are applied in the planning process. Due to the continual increase in computation speed through improvements in technology, a number of advanced electron beam dose calculation algorithms have recently been developed which incorporate physically rigorous modelling of the scattering and interaction processes involved in electron transport. These algorithms are significantly more accurate than those employed by commercially available radiotherapy planning systems. The advantages and disadvantages of the 3D Pencil beam method, the Pencil Beam Redefinition Method, the Multi-ray model, theoretical perturbative methods, the Phase Space Evolution model, Monte Carlo techniques, the Superposition/Convolution method, the Macro-Monte Carlo algorithm, the Super-Monte Carlo method and the Voxel-based Monte Carlo method are discussed in this review.