SHIELD-HIT12A - a Monte Carlo particle transport program for ion therapy research

17th International Conference on the Use of Computers in Radiation Therapy

物理学;计算机科学

Bassler, N.^1,2 ; Hansen, D.C.^2 ; Lühr, A.^1,2,3,4,5 ; Thomsen, B.^1 ; Petersen, J.B.^6 ; Sobolevsky, N.^7,8

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark^1

Department of Experimental Clinical Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark^2

German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Dresden, Germany^3

OncoRay - National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology, Medical Faculty and University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany^4

German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany^5

Department of Medical Physics, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark^6

Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INR), Moscow, Russia^7

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, State University, Russia^8

关键词: Computation time;    Electron transport;    Monte carlo particle transports;    Particle therapy;    Platform independence;    Treatment plans;    User experience;    Windows platform;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/489/1/012004/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/489/1/012004

学科分类：计算机科学（综合）

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Purpose: The Monte Carlo (MC) code SHIELD-HIT simulates the transport of ions through matter. Since SHIELD-HIT08 we added numerous features that improves speed, usability and underlying physics and thereby the user experience. The -A fork of SHIELD-HIT also aims to attach SHIELD-HIT to a heavy ion dose optimization algorithm to provide MC-optimized treatment plans that include radiobiology. Methods: SHIELD-HIT12A is written in FORTRAN and carefully retains platform independence. A powerful scoring engine is implemented scoring relevant quantities such as dose and track-average LET. It supports native formats compatible with the heavy ion treatment planning system TRiP. Stopping power files follow ICRU standard and are generated using the libdEdx library, which allows the user to choose from a multitude of stopping power tables. Results: SHIELD-HIT12A runs on Linux and Windows platforms. We experienced that new users quickly learn to use SHIELD-HIT12A and setup new geometries. Contrary to previous versions of SHIELD-HIT, the 12A distribution comes along with easy-to-use example files and an English manual. A new implementation of Vavilov straggling resulted in a massive reduction of computation time. Scheduled for later release are CT import and photon-electron transport. Conclusions: SHIELD-HIT12A is an interesting alternative ion transport engine. Apart from being a flexible particle therapy research tool, it can also serve as a back end for a MC ion treatment planning system. More information about SHIELD-HIT12A and a demo version can be found on http://www.shieldhit.org.