Research on the dosimetric accuracy of pencil beam fine sampling for proton dose calculation

Hadrontherapy is amedical therapy based on a new technology allowing to treat cancer without surgery and with contained damages to healthy surrounding tissues. Nowadays,the so called treatment planning is the core of every therapy and consists in run simulations in order to estimate the dose deposition inside the patient before the real treatment occurs. The most accurate algorithms designed for this purpose are Monte-Carlo-based and simulate the effects for a huge amount of particles, requiring a significant amount of computing time. New methods have been developed, such as pencil beam algorithms and pencil beam fine sampling. The aim of this project is to understand, improve and implement pencil beam fine sampling by using matRad and to compare different methods with the measurements provided by the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center(HIT), SyngoRTplanning and Fluka-based MC simulations