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Purpose: Due to its success in Radiation Oncology during the last decade, interest in proton therapy is on the rise. Unfortunately, despite the global enthusiasm in the field, there is presently no free, multiplatform and customizable Treatment Planning System (TPS) providing proton dose distributions in heterogenous medium. This restricts substantially the progress of clinical research for groups without access to a commercial Proton TPS. The latest implementation of our pencil beam dose calculation algorithm for proton beams within the 3D Slicer open‐source environment fulfills all the conditions described above. Methods: The core dose calculation algorithm is based on the Hong algorithm (1), which was upgraded with the Kanematsu theory describing the evolution of the lateral scattering of proton beamlets in heterogeneous medium. This algorithm deals with both mono‐energetic beams and Spread Out Bragg Peak (SOBP). In order to be user‐friendly, we provide a graphical user interface implemented with the Qt libraries, and visualization with the 3D Slicer medical image analysis software. Two different pencil beam algorithms were developed, and the clinical proton beam line at our facility was modeled. Results: The dose distributions provided by our algorithms were compared to dose distributions coming from both commercialized XiO TPS and literature (dose measurements, GEANT4 and MCNPx) and turned out to be in a good agreement, with maximum dose discrepancies of 5% in homogeneous phantoms and 10% in heterogeneous phantoms. The algorithm of SOBP creation from an optimized weigthing of mono‐energetic beams results in flat SOBP. Conclusion: We hope that our efforts in implementing this new, open‐source proton TPS will help the research groups to have a free access to a useful, reliable proton dose calculation software.(1) L. Hong et al., A pencil beam algorithm for proton dose calculations, Phys. Med. Biol. 41 (1996) 1305–1330. This project is paid for by NCI/MGH Federal share as a research grant.
Desplanques et al. (Thu,) studied this question.