September 10, 2007 - Accuray Inc. announced today at the 9th Biennial European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO) meeting on Physics and Radiation Technology for Clinical Radiotherapy in Barcelona, Spain, that its Monte Carlo Dose Calculation algorithm has received 510(k) and is now commercially available worldwide.
Monte Carlo methods are considered the gold standard of probabilistic statistics. The Monte Carlo dose calculation method takes the probability and potential interactions for each individual photon into account when it calculates the dose being delivered by a single photon. It then considers the probabilities for each of millions of photons to generate a dose calculation for the target and surrounding structures.
Treatment with radiation therapy or radiosurgery requires a linear accelerator to deliver one or more X-ray beams to a target. Each beam is made up of trillions of photons, and each photon follows an individual path to the target. Traditional dose calculation methods assume all photons take a single path and therefore use a single calculation to represent the dose delivered by all photons.
The Monte Carlo dose calculation methodology is ideal for use in treating lung tumors, which are solid masses surrounded by air cavities, because it takes into account varying tissue densities.
For more information: www.accuray.com