Grid and cluster computing for radiotherapy: Monte Carlo simulations bring much-needed accuracy to benefit cancer patients.(FOCUS--HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING)

Scientific Computing, March, 2006 by Chin, P.W.; Giddy, J.P.; Lewis, D.G.

Each year, over 11 million people are diagnosed with cancer, and seven million die of the disease. * Radiation therapy, surgery, or a combination of the two, are able to cure about a third of these cases. (1) Computer simulation of radiation transport is very useful for radiotherapy, both in research and in clinical routines, particularly when:

* accuracy from existing calculation methods is unsatisfactory

* physical experiments are impractical, unethical or impossible.

Today, accurate calculation is in high demand more than ever, particularly with the wide introduction of complex treatment modalities such as conformal and intensity modulated radiotherapy (CFRT and IMRT). (2) To calculate radiation dose, one might attempt to solve coupled...

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