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Title: TOPAS Tool for Particle Simulation

Software ·
OSTI ID:1231702

TOPAS lets users simulate the passage of subatomic particles moving through any kind of radiation therapy treatment system, can import a patient geometry, can record dose and other quantities, has advanced graphics, and is fully four-dimensional (3D plus time) to handle the most challenging time-dependent aspects of modern cancer treatments.TOPAS unlocks the power of the most accurate particle transport simulation technique, the Monte Carlo (MC) method, while removing the painstaking coding work such methods used to require. Research physicists can use TOPAS to improve delivery systems towards safer and more effective radiation therapy treatments, easily setting up and running complex simulations that previously used to take months of preparation. Clinical physicists can use TOPAS to increase accuracy while reducing side effects, simulating patient-specific treatment plans at the touch of a button. TOPAS is designed as a “user code” layered on top of the Geant4 Simulation Toolkit. TOPAS includes the standard Geant4 toolkit, plus additional code to make Geant4 easier to control and to extend Geant4 functionality. TOPAS aims to make proton simulation both “reliable” and “repeatable.” “Reliable” means both accurate physics and a high likelihood to simulate precisely what the user intended to simulate, reducing issues of wrong units, wrong materials, wrong scoring locations, etc. “Repeatable” means not just getting the same result from one simulation to another, but being able to easily restore a previously used setup and reducing sources of error when a setup is passed from one user to another. TOPAS control system incorporates key lessons from safety management, proactively removing possible sources of user error such as line-ordering mistakes In control files. TOPAS has been used to model proton therapy treatment examples including the UCSF eye treatment head, the MGH stereotactic alignment in radiosurgery treatment head and the MGH gantry treatment heads in passive scattering and scanning modes, and has demonstrated dose calculation based on patient-specific CT data.

Short Name / Acronym:
TOPAS; 002932MLTPL00
Site Accession Number:
0
Version:
00
Programming Language(s):
Medium: X; OS: MAC OSX, LINUX; Compatibility: Workstation
Research Organization:
SLAC National Acceleratory Laboratory
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1231702
Country of Origin:
United States

Similar Records

TOPAS: An innovative proton Monte Carlo platform for research and clinical applications
Journal Article · Thu Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2012 · Medical Physics · OSTI ID:1231702

Experimental validation of the TOPAS Monte Carlo system for passive scattering proton therapy
Journal Article · Sun Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Medical Physics · OSTI ID:1231702

Experimental validation of the TOPAS Monte Carlo system for passive scattering proton therapy
Journal Article · Sun Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Medical Physics · OSTI ID:1231702

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