TRiP98: Parallelization of Dose Calculation

TRiP98, a treatment planning program, was used in the pilot project of heavy ion radiotherapy with scanned ion beams at GSI [1]. Over 400 patients were treated from 1997 to 2008 [2]. Currently TRiP98 is used for research purposes. One big part of the actual research is to make TRiP98 able to handle 4D data sets [3]. This is needed for the treatment of moving tumors (like lung tumors). Due to this development of TRiP98 and the therefore growing amount of data, the need of being able to calculate data faster is becoming more and more important. In this approach we focus on the dose calculation of the standard TRiP98 version. In total five different algorithms have to be considered: three for the absorbed dose and two for the biological dose [4]. The aim of the work done here is to show that parallel dose calculation is working. In further steps, this approach could be used as a basis for an implementation in the new 4D developments or even for other parts of TRiP98 such as dose optimization.