Monte Carlo simulation of radiation transport has numerous applications in medical radiation physics, largely due to its detailed modeling of radiation interactions and to its suitability for dealing with complex geometries. This course aims at providing medical physics experts with the theoretical and, especially, practical abilities required to efficiently use the general-purpose Monte Carlo code PENELOPE/penEasy (see PENELOPE reference manual here and penEasy’s here) to simulate a variety of problems related to radiotherapy, imaging and nuclear medicine. Linac simulation and patient dosimetry in external beams will be addressed with PRIMO (see description here), a radiotherapy dose verification system based on PENELOPE/penEasy. The coupling between x-rays and light for digital detectors will be studied with the MANTIS code (see description here).

The main learning outcomes are:

• Understand the principles and physics underlying the Monte Carlo simulation of radiation transport, with emphasis on photons and electrons.
• Devise and prepare models to efficiently simulate medical physics problems with PENELOPE/penEasy, PRIMO and MANTIS.
• Use the PRIMO system to compute accurate dose distributions in external beam radiotherapy patients, including a full simulation of the (Varian) linac.
• Manage a simulation project from beginning (conceptual modeling) to end (analysis of results).