Point Dose Measurement for Verification of Treatment Planning System using an Indigenous Heterogeneous Pelvis Phantom for Clarkson, Convolution, Superposition, and Fast Superposition Algorithms

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, advanced radiotherapy equipment includes algorithms to calculate dose. The verification of the calculated doses is important to achieve accurate results. Mostly homogeneous dosimetric phantoms are available commercially which do not mimic the actual patient anatomy; therefore, an indigenous heterogeneous pelvic phantom mimicking actual human pelvic region has been used to verify the doses calculated by different algorithms. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to compare the planed dose using different algorithms with measured dose using an indigenous heterogeneous pelvic phantom. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this experimental study, various three dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) plans were made using different doses calculated by algorithms. The plans were delivered by medical linear accelerator and doses were measured by ion chamber placed in the indigenous pelvic phantom. Planned and measured doses were compared with together and analyzed. RESULTS: The relative electron densities of different parts in the pelvic phantom were found to be in good agreement with that of actual pelvic parts, including bladder, rectum, fats and bones. The highest percentage deviations between planned and measured dose were calculated in the single field for Superposition algorithm (3.09%) and single field with 45˚wedge for Superposition (3.04%). The least percentage deviation was calculated in the opposite field for Convolution which was - 0.08%. The results were within the range of ±5% as recommended by International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurement. CONCLUSION: The cost-effective indigenous heterogeneous pelvic phantom has the density pattern similar to the actual pelvic region; thus, it can be used for routine patient-specific quality assurance.