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Project Leader
Carl Ross
Phone: 613-993-9352x233
Fax: 613-952-9865
Email: Carl.Ross@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Radiation Transport Modeling
The Monte Carlo method, as applied to the transport of ionizing radiation, uses known interaction cross sections along with statistical methods to track individual particles as they traverse matter. A large number of particles, typically a billion, must be followed to achieve adequate uncertainty. The advent of high-speed, relatively inexpensive, computer systems has meant that this approach is now useful for problems related to radiation therapy and medical imaging.
This program is devoted to the development, refinement and application of Monte Carlo techniques for problems of relevance to medical physics. Work has focused on the general purpose code, EGSnrc, as well as tools devoted for specific applications, such as BEAMnrc and VMC++. The EGSnrc code is considered to be among the best tested and most accurate available.
Monte Carlo simulation software of radiation transport in materials, maintained and developed by IRS scientists, has lead to breakthrough technology which can aid in the treatment of cancer patients with accurate radiation therapy. The VMC ++ Monte Carlo software allows for the precise calculation of radiation dose distributions, so that the dose to the tumor can be maximized while the dose to healthy tissue is minimized. This software is about 100 times faster than previous Monte Carlo approaches were at solving the problem of correct dose distributions yet retains the accuracy of the slower codes.
The EGSnrc program is widely considered to be the most accurate Monte Carlo code in the world for the simulation of electron and photon transport. The BEAMnrc user code leverages this accuracy to provide a realistic computational framework to model linear accelerators, in particular those used for radiation therapy in cancer clinics. Over the last year the breadth of EGSnrc has been expanded with new capabilities for positron emission tomography, cone beam CT, voxelized human phantoms, and more efficient simulation of ionization chambers. The accuracy of the simulations has been improved with better Rayleigh scattering (more accurate angular sampling and user-defined form factors), and more accurate bremsstrahlung cross-sections. A new 300-processor computational cluster allows simulation of complex problems, such as medical image reconstruction based on realistic scatter corrections, and skeletal dosimetry using a full-scale model of the human body with millimeter resolution.
Read more on the Scientists and Innovations webpage: Physics Finds a Better Way to Target Cancer.
