Background: Metal Artifact Reduction (MAR) is very important in terms of dose calculation and optimization accuracy in radiotherapy (RT). There are many MAR programs available commercially. In this study, a MAR program was developed using MATLAB software (MATLAB-MAR), and the effect of the developed MATLAB-MAR on radiotherapy dose distribution was examined. Materials and Methods: In line with the purpose of the study, a phantom containing metal with a high atomic number (z=82) was created, and computer tomography (CT) of the phantom was taken. MAR developed with MATLAB software and a commercial metal artifact reduction (Smart-MAR) were applied on CT slices. The Hounsfield unit (HU), visually, artefact size and gamma evaluation effects of MATLAB-MAR, Smart-MAR and Without-MAR slices in the CMS XiO planning systems. Results: As a result of the study, the best visually and HU improvement was seen in MATLAB-MAR. Moreover, in the dose distribution evaluation made by gamma analysis, an improvement was observed in MATLAB-MAR.
Conclusion: Although similar values were obtained with MATLAB-MAR and the commercial software, it was determined that MATLAB-MAR was more advantageous than the commercial software in terms of being cost-free, providing results in a shorter time, not requiring reconstruction, and being open to development.