  An essential component in proton radiotherapy is the algorithm to calculate
the radiation dose to be delivered to the patient. The most common dose
algorithms are fast but they are approximate analytical approaches. However
their level of accuracy is not always satisfactory, especially for
heterogeneous anatomic areas, like the thorax. Monte Carlo techniques provide
superior accuracy, however, they often require large computation resources,
which render them impractical for routine clinical use. Track-repeating
algorithms, for example the Fast Dose Calculator, have shown promise for
achieving the accuracy of Monte Carlo simulations for proton radiotherapy dose
calculations in a fraction of the computation time. We report on the
implementation of the Fast Dose Calculator for proton radiotherapy on a card
equipped with graphics processor units (GPU) rather than a central processing
unit architecture. This implementation reproduces the full Monte Carlo and
CPU-based track-repeating dose calculations within 2%, while achieving a
statistical uncertainty of 2% in less than one minute utilizing one single GPU
card, which should allow real-time accurate dose calculations.

Medical Physics;Nuclear Experiment