PRIMO Monte Carlo software as a tool for commissioning of an external beam radiotherapy treatment planning system

BACKGROUND: The purpose was to validate the PRIMO Monte Carlo software to be used during the commissioning of a treatment planning system (TPS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Acuros XB v. 16.1 algorithm of the Eclipse was configured for 6 MV and 6 MV flattening-filter-free (FFF) photon beams, from a TrueBeam linac equipped with a high-definition 120-leaf multileaf collimator (MLC). PRIMO v. 0.3.64.1814 software was used with the phase space files provided by Varian and benchmarked against the reference dosimetry dataset published by the Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core–Houston (IROC-H). Thirty Eclipse clinical intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)/volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans were verified in three ways: 1) using the PTW Octavius 4D (O4D) system; 2) the Varian Portal Dosimetry system and 3) the PRIMO software. Clinical validation of PRIMO was completed by comparing the simulated dose distributions on the O4D phantom against dose measurements for these 30 clinical plans. Agreement evaluations were performed using a 3% global/2 mm gamma index analysis. RESULTS: PRIMO simulations agreed with the benchmark IROC-H data within 2.0% for both energies. Gamma passing rates (GPRs) from the 30 clinical plan verifications were (6 MV/6MV FFF): 99.4% ± 0.5%/99.9% ± 0.1%, 99.8% ± 0.4%/98.9% ± 1.4%, 99.7% ± 0.4%/99.7% ± 0.4%, for the 1), 2) and 3) verification methods, respectively. Agreement between PRIMO simulations on the O4D phantom and 3D dose measurements resulted in GPRs of 97.9% ± 2.4%/99.7% ± 0.4%. CONCLUSION: The PRIMO software is a valuable tool for dosimetric verification of clinical plans during the commissioning of the primary TPS.