Treatment log files as a tool to identify treatment plan sensitivity to inaccuracies in scanned proton beam delivery

Dose distributions delivered at Gantry 2 at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) can be reconstructed on the patient anatomy based on machine log files. With the present work, the dependency of the log file calculation on the planning optimization technique and on other planning parameters, such as field direction and tumour size, has been investigated. Interestingly, and despite the typically higher modulation of Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy (IMPT) plans, the results for both Single Field Uniform Distribution and IMPT approaches have been found to be similar. In addition, complex fields with steep in-field dose gradients, such as Simultaneous Integrated Boost, and with couch movements in between the delivery, also resulted in good agreement between planned and reconstructed doses. Nevertheless, highly modulated plans can have regions of larger local dose deviations and attention should therefore be paid during the planning stage to the location of isolated, highly weighted pencil beams. We propose also, that further effort should be invested in order to predict field robustness to delivery fluctuations before the clinical delivery of the plan as part of the plan specific Quality Assurance.