Comparison of Two different Methods for describing the geometry of a Voxelized Anthropomorphic Phantom in Radiotherapy Treatment Plans

Abstract

The main purpose of this work is to provide a comparison between two different methods for building up Voxelized Anthropomorphic Phantoms in Radiotherapy Treatment Plans. The Zubal Phantom is the reference phantom utilized in order to construct the voxelized models by means of a Matlab program, in which the two different methodologies for the description of the geometry are implemented. The irradiation of the resulting phantoms was simulated with the MCNP5 (Monte Carlo N-Particle) transport code, version 5, and the calculations presented in particle flux maps inside the phantoms by utilizing the FMESH tool, superimposed mesh tally. The two different methodologies used for the description of the geometry of the phantoms are subject to the MCNP5 language, one uses intersecting planes to depict every voxel, and the other makes use of the lattice card. The different variables involved in the simulation were analyzed: particle flux, MCNP standard deviation and real simulation CPU time cost.