Rad-Onc made simple

[NS_hopeful]

I'm doing rad-onc research at the moment, and there's a few rad-onc concepts I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around. Can someone explain to me (in basic terminology) the importance of needing Hounsfield units and electron densities from CT imaging for Radiation Therapy Planning (RTP)? What, exactly, are their roles in RTP?

Also, can someone explain what anisotropic analytical and Monte Carlo algorithms roles are in RTP?

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[thesauce]

I'm doing rad-onc research at the moment, and there's a few rad-onc concepts I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around. Can someone explain to me (in basic terminology) the importance of needing Hounsfield units and electron densities from CT imaging for Radiation Therapy Planning (RTP)? What, exactly, are their roles in RTP?

Also, can someone explain what anisotropic analytical and Monte Carlo algorithms roles are in RTP?

Neuronix: sick em'

jk...at least the houndfield units question, I can answer:

HU is a calculation based on linear attenuation coefficients of tissues/materials relative to water. Linear attenuation coefficients can be used to calculate the reduction in the intensity of the beam as it passes through a certain thickness of that tissue/material. Thus HU is used for that same purpose.

Monte Carlo RTP is a dose calculation model based on statistical probabilities of interactions. It assigns a statistical probability to each X-ray/electron intersection that can occur and sums them together. Individual particle calculations are worthless but once you add up billions of these interactions, it starts to represent what's actually happening in terms of dose distribution.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Closing as thread already exists here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/procedures-in-radiation-oncology.1129773/#post-16369238