MODELS FOR DOSE CALCULATION IN CLINICAL R ADIOTHERAPY

In radiation therapy, it is important to know precisely the dose distr ibution in the target volume and in the critical organs. To be clinica lly applicable, the dose calculation models must account for the actua l characteristics of the beams and for the tissue densities. An accura cy of 2% in low dose gradient regions and 2 mm in high dose gradient i s expected, while keeping the computation time consistent with an inte ractive approach. We describe and discuss briefly the dose calculation models currently used.