Control Point Analysis comparison for 3 different treatment planning and delivery complexity levels using a commercial 3-dimensional diode array

To investigate the use of “Control Point Analysis” (Sun Nuclear Corporation, Melbourne, FL) to analyze and compare delivered volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans for 3 different treatment planning complexity levels. A total of 30 patients were chosen and fully anonymized for the purpose of this study. Overall, 10 lung stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), 10 head-and-neck (H&N), and 10 prostate VMAT plans were generated on Pinnacle3 and delivered on a Varian linear accelerator (LINAC). The delivered dose was measured using ArcCHECK (Sun Nuclear Corporation, Melbourne, FL). Each plan was analyzed using “Sun Nuclear Corporation (SNC) Patient 6” and “Control Point Analysis.” Gamma passing percentage was used to assess the differences between the measured and planned dose distributions and to assess the role of various control point binning combinations. Of the different sites considered, the prostate cases reported the highest gamma passing percentages calculated with “SNC Patient 6” (97.5% to 99.2% for the 3%, 3 mm) and “Control Point Analysis” (95.4% to 98.3% for the 3%, 3 mm). The mean percentage of passing control point sectors for the prostate cases increased from 51.8 ± 7.8% for individual control points to 70.6 ± 10.5% for 5 control points binned together to 87.8 ± 11.0% for 10 control points binned together (2%, 2-mm passing criteria). Overall, there was an increasing trend in the percentage of sectors passing gamma analysis with an increase in the number of control points binned together in a sector for both the gamma passing criteria (2%, 2 mm and 3%, 3 mm). Although many plans passed the clinical quality assurance criteria, plans involving the delivery of high Monitor Unit (MU)/control point (SBRT) and plans involving high degree of modulation (H&N) showed less delivery accuracy per control point compared with plans with low MU/control point and low degree of modulation (prostate).