A new planning tool for IMRT treatments: Implementation and first application for proton beams

More and more dedicated clinical hadron facilities will be implemented in the near future. Especially, the use of proton beams is planned on a large scale in the United States. Central aim of these new treatment centers is to demonstrate a clinical advantage of charged particle beams in comparison to state of the art radiation therapy with high energy photons, i.e., in comparison to photon IMRT. While intensity modulated dose delivery techniques can be elegantly realised for hadronic beams with the spot scanning approach [1], currently available treatment planning tools for this costly therapy modality have not yet reached the high standards of IMRT planning tools for photon beams.