Specific MLC quality controls for IMRT

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) represents one of the most significant technical advances in radiotherapy since the advent of the medical linear accelerator, as it enables the clinical application of highly conformal and non-convex dose distributions. However, these advances do not come without risk, as IMRT represents a new paradigm in the radiation therapy process, particularly in terms of treatment quality assurance. This work focuses on one of the quality assurance aspects of IMRT, related to quality controls of multileaf collimators. A set of tests is presented to routinely evaluate the performance of this component of the accelerator to ensure the reliability and safety of the treatments. The results obtained show that most of the parameters studied comply with internationally accepted tolerances, so it is concluded that this component is suitable for use in IMRT treatments. (author)