News & Information

Investigation quantifies the benefits of Monte Carlo dose computation and custom beam models for independent secondary dose calculation and patient-specific quality assurance.

Research conducted by the Department of Oncology at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark aimed to evidence the value of Monte Carlo dose calculation over analytical algorithms and the benefit of customized beam models over generic beam models for patient-specific quality assurance.  The results of the investigation were published in the Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics.  Click here to access and download the article.

The project evaluated a set of 100 patients across 20 case classes and compared dose calculations performed by the SciMoCa Monte Carlo algorithm and the Mobius 3D convolution–superposition algorithm against the respective Acuros XB (TPS) dose distributions.  The evaluation documented higher gamma pass rates for the SciMoCa Monte Carlo algorithm which allows for substantially stricter acceptance criteria.  The findings also reinforced the benefit of custom beam models in terms of supporting stricter action levels and the potential to discern systematic TPS commissioning errors as part of the patient QA process.

“I feel blessed that our product was a key actor in the first publication that quantifies the clinical benefit of the superior dose computation accuracy of Monte Carlo,” said Dr. Markus Alber, Chief Executive Officer of ScientificRT. “This is a timely contribution to the discussion about the high-stakes quality assurance for online-adaptive treatments, which are rapidly gaining traction with Varian´s Ethos and Elekta´s Unity products.”

SciMoCa leverages the power of Monte Carlo for independent dose calculation and plan QA. Developed by Radialogica in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Markus Alber and ScientificRT, SciMoCa combines the accuracy of Monte-Carlo dose calculations and the precision of custom beam models for robust dose verification and plan quality evaluation.