Treatment Couch Modeling in the Treatment Planning System Eclipse

The treatment couch and some of the positioning devices of patients receiving radiotherapy treatment are made of a material (carbon) which has low attenuation properties for the photon energies used in the radiotherapy. Previous investigations showed the suitability of carbon fiber tabletops in radiotherapy and their very low attenuation properties for a range of X-ray energies and field sizes (De Ost et al., 1997; Higgins et al., 2001; Meara and Langmack, 1998). The Carbon treatment couch is designed to minimize the potential blocking of the radiation treatment beam for conventional treatment techniques (Buckle, 2005; Meyer et al., 2001; Muthuswamy, 1999; Spezi et al., 2008). Some studies have shown that the treatment couch is not negligible during treatment planning process whereas the dose delivery is performed with treatment couch (Myint et al., 2006; Poppe et al., 2007; Spezi and Ferri, 2007; Vieira et al., 2003).