Automated IMRT Treatment Planning

Pierburg, B.; Kashani, Rojano; Baker, K.W.; Lindsey, Andrew; Watts, Michael; Yang, Deshan; Moore, Kevin L.

doi:10.1016/j.ijrobp.2010.07.1758

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…While conventional breast RT planning methods may take a few hours to design, automated planning software can reduce dosimetrist workload by reproducibly generating treatment plans in <10 minutes 14 . Application of similar automated planning methods in breast, prostate, head and neck, and anal canal disease sites have demonstrated numerous benefits including improved treatment planning consistency, efficiency and plan quality 29 – 32 . Although presently limited in accessibility, automated planning tools will undoubtedly continue its integration into current and future clinical practice 13 , 30 , 32 , 33 and adoption of these technologies will reduce human resources resulting in direct cost-savings to the department while securing timely RT treatment delivery.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

QuickStart radiotherapy: an inter-professional approach to expedite radiotherapy treatment in early breast cancer

et al. 2015

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Background and purposeThis study aims to develop an expedited radiotherapy (RT) process and evaluate its time savings in women requiring whole breast RT.Material and methodsAn inter-professional RT team streamlined the computed tomography (CT) simulation and treatment pathway for a ‘QuickStart’ process. Target delineation was performed by an advanced practice radiation therapist and approved by the radiation oncologist (RO) for planning. Automated breast planning software was used for treatment planning and standard quality checks were performed. To assess time savings, the initial 25 QuickStart patients were matched with women who underwent whole breast simulation on the same day (±3 days), treated using the conventional process.ResultsA total of 73 post-lumpectomy women were treated through the QuickStart process; the median consent-to-RT was 2 days (range: 0–13) and the mean CT simulation-to-RT treatment was 2 hours and 42 minutes (SD 0:30). In the subgroup analysis, QuickStart patients saved an average of 11 days from CT simulation-to-RT and had shorter median wait-times for both surgery/chemotherapy-to-RT (60 versus 38 days;p=0·002) and consultation-to-RT (7 versus 20 days;p<0·001).ConclusionsThrough inter-professional team efforts and the application of automated planning software, we have achieved a process that significantly decreases patient wait-times while maintaining the quality of whole breast RT.

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