Comparison of MCNPX and Geant4 proton energy deposition predictions for clinical use

Several different Monte Carlo codes are currently being used at proton therapy centers to improve upon dose predictions over standard methods using analytical or semi-empirical dose algorithms. There is a need to better ascertain the differences between proton dose predictions from different available Monte Carlo codes. In this investigation Geant4 and MCNPX, the two most-utilized Monte Carlo codes for proton therapy applications, were used to predict energy deposition distributions in a variety of geometries, comprising simple water phantoms, water phantoms with complex inserts and in a voxelized geometry based on clinical CT data. The Gamma analysis was used to evaluate the differences of the predictions between the codes. The results show that in all the cases the agreement was better than clinical acceptance criteria. (paper)