A GPU-Based Pencil Beam Algorithm for Dose Calculations in Proton Radiation Therapy

Recent developments in radiation therapy have been focused on applications of charged particles, especially—protons. Proton therapy can allow higher dose conformality compared to conventional radiation therapy. Dose calculations have an integral role in the successful application of proton therapy. Over the years several dose calculation methods have been proposed in proton therapy. A common characteristic of all these methods is their extensive computational burden. One way to ameliorate that issue is the parallelization of the algorithm. Graphics processing units (GPUs) have recently been employed to accelerate the proton dose calculation process. Pencil-beam dose calculation algorithms for proton therapy have been widely utilized in clinical routine for treatment planning purposes in most clinical settings, due to their simplicity of calculation scheme and acceptable accuracy. In the current study a GPU-based pencil beam algorithm for dose calculations with protons is proposed. The studies indicated a maximum speedup factor of ∼127 in a homogeneous phantom.