Comparison of Measured and Computed Lateral Penumbra for a ProteusPlus Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy System

The lateral penumbra of a proton pencil beam scanning system (PBS) is of great importance in sparing of organs at risk and normal tissue when treating patients. The purpose of this current work is to measure the lateral penumbra of the Ion Beam Applications (Ion Beam Applications, Louvain‐la‐Neuve, Belgium) ProteusPLUS PBS Proton Therapy System and compare the measurements with the computed results from the RayStation proton treatment planning system. The lateral penumbra (80%-20%) was measured using EBT-3 Gafchromic film in the water tank. The lateral penumbra was studied for various parameters such as range, depth, and air gap. The computed lateral penumbra was found to be higher than the measured lateral penumbra by up to 2.3 mm in the case of depth dependency at 30 cm, and lower by up to 1.18 mm in the case of an air gap of 15 cm.