Acceptance testing and commissioning

Abstract

Considering the latest developments in the field of proton therapy, the primary focus of this chapter is on proton therapy systems offering pencil beam scanning treatment techniques. Nevertheless, considerations for broad beam techniques, such as double scattering and uniform scanning, are addressed as well. The acceptance and commissioning phases are put in perspective within the overall phases of a proton therapy project. Acceptance testing addresses aspects of the patient and personnel safety systems; the patient positioning and position verification systems; proton beam characteristics; as well as dosimetric equivalence of treatment rooms; and operational aspects, such as, room switching and treatment technique switching. The clinical commissioning section addresses the project planning aspects; the calibration of the computerized tomography (CT) scanner for the purpose of proton dose calculation; the proton machine characterization prior to the acquisition of the beam data library (BDL) for the purpose of treatment planning system (TPS) calibration; the BDL acquisition; the commissioning of the imaging and mechanical components; the beam model validation; the end-to-end tests; and external peer reviews and audits.