A study on the correlation between plan complexity and gamma index analysis in patient specific quality assurance of volumetric modulated arc therapy

Aim

To evaluate the new Octavius 4D system for patient specific quality assurance and to study the correlation between plan complexity and gamma index analysis in patient specific quality assurance of VMAT using the Octavius 4D system.

Background

McNiven (2010) proposed a study to evaluate the utility of a complexity metric, the Modulation Complexity Score, to evaluate the relationship of the metric with deliverability in IMRT.

Materials and methods

Evaluation of the Octavius 4D system was carried out by gamma evaluation of user defined MLC created patterns and AAPM TG 119 benchmark plans. The relationship between plan complexity expressed as Modulation Complexity Score (MCS) and the gamma index analysis was established by a planar and volumetric gamma analysis of 106 clinically approved VMAT patient plans of different sites.

Results

Average volumetric 3D global gamma evaluation (3 mm/3%) results for the evaluation plans was 97.41% for 6 MV X-rays and 98.30% for 15 MV X-rays. Average MCS values for the head and neck, pelvic and thoracic plans were 0.2224, 0.3615 and 0.1874. Average volumetric 3D global gamma analysis (3 mm/3%) results for the head and neck, pelvic and thoracic VMAT plans were 95.45%, 97.51% and 96.98%, respectively. Out of 90 correlation analyses between the MCS and gamma passing rate, only 3 had the r value greater than 0.5.

Conclusions

The Octavius 4D system is a suitable device for patient specific pretreatment QA. Global and local gamma analysis results showed a weak correlation with the MCS.