Comparative study of dose calculations with SERA and JCDS treatment planning systems

Three treatment planning systems developed for clinical boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) use are SERA developed by INL/Montana State University, NCTPlan developed by the Harvard-MIT and the CNEA group and JAEA computational dosimetry system (JCDS) developed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) in Japan. Previously, performance of the SERA and NCTPlan has been compared in various studies. In this preliminary study, the dose calculations performed with SERA and JCDS systems were compared in single brain cancer patient case with the FiR 1 epithermal neutron beam. A two-field brain cancer treatment plan was performed with the both codes. The dose components to normal brain, tumor and planning target volume (PTV) were calculated and compared in case of one radiation field and combined two fields. The depth dose distributions and the maximum doses in regions of interest were compared. Calculations with the treatment planning systems for the thermal neutron induced (¹⁰B and nitrogen) dose components and photon dose were in good agreement. Higher discrepancy in the fast neutron dose calculations was found. In case of combined two-field treatment plan, overall discrepancy of the maximum weighted dose was ∼3% for normal brain and PTV and ∼4% for tumor dose.