Characterization of computer simulated radiotherapy beams for Monte-Carlo treatment planning

Beam characterization consists of two parts: Beam simulation and beam modeling. The EGS4/BEAM Monte-Carlo code system has been used for the simulation of the beams from different clinical linear accelerators and a multiple-source model has been proposed to represent and reconstruct the simulated beam phase–space data. Benefits of well-designed beam models over phase–space data include shorter beam simulation time, a smaller disk space requirement, and improved understanding of the clinical beams used for radiotherapy.