Development and Validation of a Labview-Based Dosimetric Recalculation System to Reduce Systematic and Probabilistic Errors in Radiotherapy

Abstract

Accurate monitor unit (MU) determination is crucial in external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) to ensure patients receive the intended radiation dose. Yet, due to increasing clinical workload and limited time, manually verifying the MU values calculated by Treatment Planning Systems (TPS) is often impractical potentially allowing systematic or random errors to go unnoticed. To overcome this limitation, we designed and validated an independent MU verification system built using the LabVIEW graphical programming environment. This system supports medical physicists by minimizing computational bias and variability in MU calculations. It draws on a MySQL-based dosimetric database and incorporates key parameters such as percentage depth dose (PDD), field output correction (FOC), and relative transmission measurements (RTM) to facilitate fast and accurate MU checks. The system's performance was evaluated by comparing its recalculated MU values with those from the XiO TPS across multiple treatment cases. The recalculations consistently confirmed deviations within <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\pm 3 \%$</tex>, demonstrating the tool's accuracy and potential for clinical integration. Ultimately, this system offers a practical solution to enhance dosimetric reliability and enhance the overall safety of radiotherapy treatments.