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Principled Variance Reduction Techniques For Real Time Patient-Specific Monte Carlo Applications Within Brachytherapy And Cone-Beam Computed Tomography, Andrew Sampson

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation describes the application of two principled variance reduction strategies to increase the efficiency for two applications within medical physics. The first, called correlated Monte Carlo (CMC) applies to patient-specific, permanent-seed brachytherapy (PSB) dose calculations. The second, called adjoint-biased forward Monte Carlo (ABFMC), is used to compute cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scatter projections. CMC was applied for two PSB cases: a clinical post-implant prostate, and a breast with a simulated lumpectomy cavity. CMC computes the dose difference between the highly correlated dose computing homogeneous and heterogeneous geometries. The particle transport in the heterogeneous geometry assumed a purely homogeneous environment, …