PURPOSE: Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment planning can have wide variation among different treatment centers.
We propose a system to leverage the IMRT planning experience of larger institutions to automatically create high-quality plans for outside clinics. We explore feasibility by generating plans for patient datasets from an outside institution by adapting plans from our institution.
METHODS AND MATERIALS: A knowledge database was created from 132 IMRT treatment plans for prostate cancer at our institution. The outside institution, a community hospital, provided the datasets for 55 prostate cancer cases, including their original treatment plans. For each "query" case from the outside institution, a similar "match" case was identified in the knowledge database, and the match case's plan parameters were then adapted and optimized to the query case by use of a semiautomated approach that required no expert planning knowledge. The plans generated with this knowledge-based approach were compared with the original treatment plans at several dose cutpoints.
RESULTS: Compared with the original plan, the knowledge-based plan had a significantly more homogeneous dose to the planning target volume and a significantly lower maximum dose. The volumes of the rectum, bladder, and femoral heads above all cutpoints were nominally lower for the knowledge-based plan; the reductions were significantly lower for the rectum. In 40% of cases, the knowledge-based plan had overall superior (lower) dose-volume histograms for rectum and bladder; in 54% of cases, the comparison was equivocal; in 6% of cases, the knowledge-based plan was inferior for both bladder and rectum.
CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge-based planning was superior or equivalent to the original plan in 95% of cases. The knowledge-based approach shows promise for homogenizing plan quality by transferring planning expertise from more experienced to less experienced institutions.
Written by:
Good D, Lo J, Lee WR, Wu QJ, Yin FF, Das SK. Are you the author?
Medical Physics Graduate Program, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
Reference: Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2013 Apr 25. pii: S0360-3016(13)00324-6.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2013.03.015
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23623460
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