Nathan Farber¶
From CT scans to voxelised geometries in BDSIM: Monte-Carlo simulations of dose deposition patterns in Geant4
Abstract¶
The complete simulation of beam-matter interaction processes requires Monte-Carlo tools for accurate and thorough predictions of dose deposition patterns in a patient in hadron therapy. Apart from the beamline simulation itself, the complete model must include a phantom that accurately represents relevant clinical data relative to a patient. To create such a representation, the use of DICOM images obtained from CT scans imposes itself as a natural choice of source of data in order to simulate such a phantom. In this report, we present an implementation in Beam Delivery Simulation (BDSIM), based on Geant4, dedicated to building a realistic phantom in any simulation by using DICOM data obtained from CT scans performed on real patients. This implementation extends Geant4 features in order to build voxelized geometries. The use of these phantom models is intended to be placed at the isocenter of the Ion Beam Application (IBA) Proteusr One System. The goal of this implementation is to allow the user to easily import CT scans in a Monte-Carlo simulation with the help of simple text files, without needing to implement complex and tedious C++ classes. BDSIM already allows to do this for particle accelerator components but this new implementation should allow the user to complete the simulation of radiotherapy device by adding a realistic phantom. The implementation is explained in details along with an explanation on the process to follow to use the algorithm. Results show that the implementation is robust. Improvements, especially concerning material allocation, are proposed.