| Question 1: Which of the following regarding the condensed history method is true? |
| Reference: | M.J. Berger, "Monte Carlo calculations of the penetration and diffusion of fast charged particles", in Methods in Computational Physics, Vol. 1, edited by S. Fernbach B. Alder, M. Rothenberg (Academic Press, New York, 1963). |
| Choice A: | It is used for the single-scatter (analog) transport of photons. |
| Choice B: | It does not apply to photons or electrons. |
| Choice C: | It is based on the observation that the majority of electron interactions lead to very large changes in the electron energy and/or direction. |
| Choice D: | It is based on the observation that the majority of electron interactions lead to very small changes in the electron energy and/or direction. |
| Question 2: A MC simulation, run with 1 million (1 M) histories for a 5x5 field produces an uncertainty of 2%. If we run the simulation for a 10x10 field (with the same voxel size), how many histories should be run for 2% uncertainty? |
| Reference: | I.J. Chetty, B. Curran, J. E. Cygler, et al., "Report of the AAPM Task Group No. 105: issues associated with clinical implementation of Monte Carlo-based photon and electron external beam treatment planning", Med Phys 34 (12), 4818-53 (2007). |
| Choice A: | 16 M |
| Choice B: | 8 M |
| Choice C: | 4 M |
| Choice D: | 2 M |
| Choice E: | 1 M |
| Question 3: Which of the following regarding dose-to-water (Dw) and dose-to-medium (Dm) in 6 MV energy range is true? |
| Reference: | J.V. Siebers, P.J. Keall, A.E. Nahum, R. Mohan, " Converting absorbed dose to medium to absorbed dose to water for Monte Carlo based photon beam dose calculations", Phys Med Biol 45, 983–995 (2000). |
| Choice A: | Dw and Dm are equivalent for all tissues. |
| Choice B: | Dm is always higher than Dw for all tissues. |
| Choice C: | Dw and Dm differ by 10% for lung tissue. |
| Choice D: | Dw and Dm differ by greater than 10% for soft bone material. |
| Choice E: | Dw and Dm differ by more than 10% for cortical bone material. |
| Question 4: Which of the following regarding the phase-space (PH-SP) information of a particle beam is true? |
| Reference: | I.J. Chetty, B. Curran, J. E. Cygler, et al., "Report of the AAPM Task Group No. 105: issues associated with clinical implementation of Monte Carlo-based photon and electron external beam treatment planning", Med Phys 34 (12), 4818-53 (2007). |
| Choice A: | PH-SP means collimator angle and MLC leaf position. |
| Choice B: | PH-SP means particle direction and position. |
| Choice C: | PH-SP means couch angle and position. |
| Choice D: | PH-SP means patient breathing phase and amplitude. |
| Choice E: | PH-SP means accelerator age and treatment room size. |
| Question 5: Which of the following is recommended by TG-157 regarding safety checks? |
| Reference: | C.-M. Ma, I.J. Chetty, J. Deng, et al., " Beam modeling and beam model commissioning for MC dose calculation based radiation therapy treatment planning – The AAPM Task Group 157 Report ", in preparation (2018). |
| Choice A: | TPS will allow dose calculation for unavailable beam modalities. |
| Choice B: | TPS will not work if linac beam parameters have been changed. |
| Choice C: | TPS will not work if MC source model parameters have been changed. |
| Choice D: | TPS will allow dose calculation for unavailable beam energies. |
| Choice E: | TPS will allow dose calculation only if beam model has been validated. |
| Question 6: TG-157 recommends that dose calculation voxel sizes approximate the effective active volume of the detector to compare with measured dose distributions. This will help minimize: |
| Reference: | Ma, CM, et al., Clinical implementation of a Monte Carlo treatment planning system. Med Phys, 1999. 26(10): p. 2133-43. Keall PJ, et al., Determining the incident electron fluence for Monte Carlo-based photon treatment planning using a standard measured data set. Med Phys. 2003. ;30(4):574-82. |
| Choice A: | The statistical uncertainty of the MC dose calculation |
| Choice B: | The calculation time of the MC dose calculation |
| Choice C: | The volume-averaging effect of the detector |
| Choice D: | The angular response change of the detector |
| Choice E: | The measurement uncertainty of the detector |
