SUMMARY

The advancement in the field of radiation therapy has focused on increasing the conformity of the treatment volume while decreasing any dosage given to the organs-at-risk (OAR). Moreover, recent research of different tumor treatment locations, from head-and-neck to prostate tumors, has shown that the use of extra degrees-of-freedom can further increase dose conformity and OAR sparing. Also, the inclusion of pitch and roll rotation has allowed the reduction of treatment volume margins, reducing the dose to surrounding normal tissue to a greater extent. Despite the benefits of increasing the degree of freedom, the addition of non-coplanar setup can lead to collisions between gantry, couch and/or patient. The software developed in this project can be used to predict collisions with the additional degrees-of-freedom of pitch and roll. Experimental verification of translational and couch rotation collisions were compared to the predicted values, along with pitch and roll motion and their clearance values.