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. 2010 Apr;35(2):120-2.
doi: 10.4103/0971-6203.62198.

Applying graphics processor units to Monte Carlo dose calculation in radiation therapy

M Bakhtiari  1 , H Malhotra, M D Jones, V Chaudhary, J P Walters, D Nazareth
Affiliations

Applying graphics processor units to Monte Carlo dose calculation in radiation therapy

M Bakhtiari et al. J Med Phys. 2010 Apr.

Abstract

We investigate the potential in using of using a graphics processor unit (GPU) for Monte-Carlo (MC)-based radiation dose calculations. The percent depth dose (PDD) of photons in a medium with known absorption and scattering coefficients is computed using a MC simulation running on both a standard CPU and a GPU. We demonstrate that the GPU's capability for massive parallel processing provides a significant acceleration in the MC calculation, and offers a significant advantage for distributed stochastic simulations on a single computer. Harnessing this potential of GPUs will help in the early adoption of MC for routine planning in a clinical environment.

Keywords: Graphics processor unit; Monte Carlo.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
GPU versus CPU (source: www.nvidia.com)
Figure 2
Figure 2
The influence obtained by the simple Monte Carlo simulation
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparing the CPU and GPU times for the Monte Carlo photon transport simulation
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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