Search for practical scaling factors of Bragg peak arrangement for line-scanning proton beam therapy in RayStation

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

To enhance the efciency of treatment planning and beam delivery in line-scanning proton beam therapy, we conducted a comparative analysis of various strategies for arranging the Bragg peak within the optimization of treatment plans. In RayStation, we had the fexibility to manipulate optimization parameters, specifcally energy layer and line spacing, to control the Bragg peak’s location. To assess the impact of these parameters, we created a virtual spherical target and generated treatment plans employing both single and dual beams with diverse arrangement strategies. We then evaluated the target volume coverage using the homogeneity index. Furthermore, we selected 15 line-scanning plans. For each line-scanning plan, we generated nine comparative plans, employing distinct Bragg peak arrangement strategies. These strategies involved variations in energy layer and line spacing settings. We optimized these plans and compared their quality to the default setting. In addition, treatment planning and beam delivery efciency were estimated. Our analysis indicated that smaller energy layer and line spacing generally resulted in improved homogeneity indices. Notably, reducing line spacing proved to be more efcient than decreasing energy layer spacing, a trend that remained consistent in the line-scanning plans. For linescanning plans, adjustments in line spacing produced more efcient improvements in the conformity index and D1cc. Based on our fndings, adjusting line spacing is a more efective strategy for optimizing Bragg peak placement in RayStation. This adjustment not only enhances treatment planning but also improves beam delivery efciency by reducing the time required for energy layer switching.