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. 2022 Jul 1;9(2):10-19.
doi: 10.14338/IJPT-21-00033.1. eCollection 2022 Fall.

Operational Performance of a Compact Proton Therapy System: A 5-Year Experience

Omar A Zeidan  1 , Ethan Pepmiller  1 , Twyla Willoughby  1 , Zhiqiu Li  1 , James Burkavage  1 , Brian Harper  1 , Michael Fraser  1 , Katie Moffatt  1 , Sanford L Meeks  1 , Naren Ramakrishna  1
Affiliations

Operational Performance of a Compact Proton Therapy System: A 5-Year Experience

Omar A Zeidan et al. Int J Part Ther. .

Abstract

Purpose: We present an analysis of various operational metrics for a novel compact proton therapy system, including clinical case mix, subsystems utilization, and quality assurance trends in beam delivery parameters over a period of 5 years.

Materials and methods: Patient-specific data from a total of 850 patients (25,567 fractions) have been collected and analyzed. The patient mix include a variety of simple, intermediate, and complex cases. Beam-specific delivery parameters for a total of 3585 beams were analyzed. In-room imaging system usage for off-line adaptive purpose is reported. We also report key machine performances metrics based on routine quality assurance in addition to uptime.

Results: Our analysis shows that system subcomponents including gantry and patient positioning system have maintained a tight mechanical tolerance over the 5-year period. Various beam parameters were all within acceptable tolerances with no clear trends. Utilization frequency histograms of gantry and patient positioning system show that only a small fraction of all available angles was used for patient deliveries with cardinal angels as the most usable. Similarly, beam-specific metrics, such as range, modulation, and air gaps, were clustered unevenly over the available range indicating that this compact system was more than capable to treat the complex variety of tumors of our patient mix.

Conclusion: Our data show that this compact system is versatile, robust, and capable of delivering complex treatments like a large full-gantry system. Utilization data show that a fraction of all subcomponents range of angular motion has been used. Compilation of beam-specific metrics, such as range and modulation, show uneven distributions with specific clustering over the entire usable range. Our findings could be used to further optimize the performance and cost-effectiveness of future compact proton systems.

Keywords: compact systems; operational performance; proton therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: Omar A. Zeidan, PhD, serves on the technical advisory committee for Mevion Medical Systems. All other authors have no relevant conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Schematics of major components insider the treatment room. The inner gantry side view (left) and an overhead view robotic couch (right) with corresponding angle conventions.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Histograms of clinical beam delivery parameters.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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