Abstract

The dose calculation algorithms, as discussed here, primarily are intended to be integrated into clinically used treatment planning software. Their ultimate goal is to predict accurately the dose delivered at any single point in the patient in order to decide if a given treatment plan is acceptable or to choose the best plan from several alternative ones. The corresponding requirements are therefore to obtain rapidly an accurate and comprehensive result in all situations with a maximum of flexibility. The issues related to comprehensiveness and flexibility are dependent mostly on the practical implementation of the algorithm within the treatment planning software. They are discussed in Chapter 39. Other issues are essentially algorithm dependent and are discussed in what follows.