Retinoblastoma Radiotherapy Treatment Optimizations Through GATE Simulations

Abstract

One of the most frequent children tumors in the area around the eyes is defined as retinoblastoma. Proton radiotherapy treatment is a particularly effective type of radiation therapy due to the prolonged survival rates of children with childhood cancers such as retinablastoma, continued growth of nearby organs and tissues, low radiation dose restriction of vision-related tissues and systems of these tissues. In this study, a geometry phantom including eyeball, lens, lacrimal gland, optic nerve, optic chiasm, retina, cancer, cornea and bone structures was modeled with Monte Carlo simulation tool GATE (vGATE 9.0). With this simulation, the doses absorbed by the tissues were calculated using the DoseActor and TLEDoseActor algorithms. Secondary doses were determined by the TLEDoseActor algorithm. Determination of secondary radiations is important because of the low radiation dose limit of tissues and systems that affect vision. The best treatment results were tried to be obtained by giving the beam thickness of the radiation used in our study, 4 different angles towards the target and different energies. These results show that it can be helpful in calculating a treatment plan for proton therapy in clinical practice.