Graphics Processing Unit-Based High Performance Computing in Radiation Therapy

"""The use of graphics processing units (GPU) is of significant interest to the medical physics community, due to its potential for dramatic advances in parallel computing. This is driven by the relatively low costs, high processing power and the ease of installing these cards in the clinic…This book brings together various research groups to review the state-of-the-art for GPUs in radiotherapy. The book initially starts with an overview of the current state of GPU technology, demonstrating the increase in performance over recent years and how the GPU is controlled by the CPU. It then systematically approaches various uses for the GPUs, from increasing the speed of filtered back projection reconstruction for CBCT to dose calculation via Monte Carlo or collapsed cone superposition methods. The book concludes with a look at more quality assurance uses, such as a chapter dedicated to GPU enhanced calculations of the gamma index. The editors achieve their aim of illustrating the vast utility for the GPUs. Each chapter of the book provides useful and generally easy to understand summaries of the main algorithms used in radiotherapy, such as the CBCT reconstruction algorithm, deformable registration algorithms and Monte Carlo methods. In all cases the authors demonstrate potential performance improvement, which in many cases leads one to wonder why these technologies aren’t already in use…Overall this a good book, which effectively demonstrates the uses and the associated performance benefits of using the GPU for radiotherapy, something that will no doubt become more important as we move into the era of adaptive radiotherapy where fast reconstruction, deformable registration and dose calculations will be essential."" —Dr David Nash, Queen Alexandra Hospital, in RAD Magazine, October 2016 ""Graphics Processing Unit-Based High Performance Computing in Radiation Therapy provides comprehensive and timely information on state-of-the-art GPU techniques and is certainly a must-have book for medical physicists, engineers, and students engaged in research and development involving high performance computing."" —Lei Xing, Jacob Haimson Professor of Medical Physics, Stanford University ""With adaptive radiation therapy and personalized treatments becoming more and more important in radiation therapy, improving computational efficiency is highly significant. This excellent book covers high-performance computing in a comprehensive manner. All aspects of cutting-edge computing in radiation therapy are discussed, namely, diagnostic imaging for treatment planning, on-line imaging, treatment plan optimization, as well as dose calculation for treatment planning. This book is a rich source of information for medical physicists interested in translational research aiming at improving clinical workflow and accuracy. At the same time, it is an excellent textbook for students in the field. Highly recommended!"" —Harald Paganetti, PhD, FAAPM, Professor and Director of Physics Research, Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School"