Radiotherapy treatment planning with the BTI system. Part 1. Physical tests

A new treatment planning system was installed as a temporary substitute for a more sophisticated 3D system to be installed in the first quarter of 1995. Since then it has been used for external beam therapy planning or routine basis. The easy-to-use menuc driven oftware runs on an IBM AT 486 compatible PC. The system has been used only for planning of stationary open photon and electron beams of square or rectangular shape, set up with constant FSD and issocentically (in case of photons). A minimum set of initial checks were performed to assess the accuracy of the system by calculating simple techniques. In homogeneity corrections have not been investigated. Reults of these tests are described in this paper, while planning experiences of six months are presented in part II. (N.T.) 2 refs., 7 figs