Effect of normalization algorithms on the analysis of Bragg peak profiles

A study has been performed to evaluate the effect of normalization criteria applied to the comparison of depth dose profiles relevant to proton therapy applications. The results suggest that the widely used criterion of rescaling dose profiles based on the Bragg peak height (or on the dose value at any specific depth) affects the outcome of the goodness-of-fit tests. A normalization procedure consisting of rescaling dose profiles according to the respective integral is demonstrated to be a more robust method. Index Terms--Bragg peak, hadrontherapy, Monte Carlo, simulation.