Sun Nuclear Corporation, the worldwide leader in Radiation Oncology patient safety solutions, has successfully integrated a Monte Carlo dose calculation method into its released SunCHECK™ Platform – an integrated, independent solution for Patient and Machine QA in radiation therapy. The advanced, GPU-accelerated algorithm initially supports independent verification of TomoTherapy® treatment plans within SunCHECK’s 3D secondary dose calculation application. This feature was introduced as part of the recent SunCHECK 2.0 release.
Monte Carlo simulations have long been considered the gold standard for accuracy in radiation therapy dose calculation. However, computing power requirements and limited portability for the powerful dose calculation engine have restricted widespread clinical use.
“I always believed that TomoTherapy calculations would be ideally suited for Monte Carlo,” said Rock Mackie, co-founder of TomoTherapy, Inc., and Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I’m very pleased to see that there is now a product with this capability in the market.”
Added Jeff Simon, CEO of Sun Nuclear: “With SunCHECK, we aim to provide powerful QA capabilities for any combination of radiation therapy planning and delivery technologies. Monte Carlo-based secondary checks for TomoTherapy are a great example of how we can help optimize QA tasks for specific techniques, while standardizing workflows for the department as a whole.”
Within the SunCHECK Platform, SunCHECK Patient integrates all phases of Patient QA into a seamless workflow, including Secondary Checks, Phantomless Pre-Treatment QA and In-Vivo Monitoring. SunCHECK Machine helps to improve standardization and ease compliance reporting for Daily, Monthly and Annual QA – across locations, machines and staff.
Along with Monte Carlo-based support for TomoTherapy secondary dose calculations, SunCHECK 2.0 features TG-56-compliant HDR Brachytherapy support, Varian ICVI and BrainLab stereotactic cone support, Transit Dosimetry functionality enabling compliance with 2013/59/EURATOM, Universal Metrics™ for automated assessment of meaningful QA results, and a new Event Summary Display for improved data visualization and approval.
The newest Machine QA development for the SunCHECK platform provides preconfigured and customizable workflows for daily, monthly, and annual QA, and integrates seamlessly with the already released image-based TG-142 QA tools. Finally, SunCHECK 2.0 enables real-time communication with the Sun Nuclear Daily QA™ 3 and IC PROFILER™ devices, used in Radiation Oncology departments worldwide.