Collision indicator charts for gantry‐couch position combinations for Siemens ONCOR and Elekta Infinity linacs

Noncoplanar radiation fields from a linear accelerator can be used to deliver radiation dose distributions that are superior to those delivered using coplanar radiation fields. Noncoplanar radiation field arrangements are especially valuable when delivering stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). Noncoplanar radiation fields, however, are geometrically more challenging to deliver than coplanar radiation fields, and are associated with a greater risk of collisions between the gantry, treatment couch, and patient. Knowledge of which treatment couch offset, treatment couch angle, and gantry angle combinations provide a collision‐free radiotherapy delivery is useful in the treatment planning process, as the risk of requiring replanning due to improperly selected treatment parameters can be minimized. Such tables are by default specific to the linear accelerator make and model used for treatment. In this work a set of plots is presented indicating which combination of treatment couch lateral offsets (‐10 cm to 10 cm), couch angles (270° to 90°), and gantry angles (0° to 360°), will result in collision‐free radiation delivery using Siemens ONCOR linear accelerators equipped with a 160‐leaf multileaf collimator and a 550 TxT treatment table, and a Elekta Infinity linear accelerator with an MLCi2 and Elekta iBEAM evo Couchtop EP. The patient was assumed to have a width of 50 cm and a height of 25 cm. PACS numbers: 87.55.‐x, 87.56.‐v