Purpose
Between July 2013 and August 2019, 22% of the imaging and radiation oncology core (IROC) spine, and 15% of the moving lung phantom irradiations have failed to meet established acceptability ...criteria. The spine phantom simulates a highly modulated stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) case, whereas the lung phantom represents a low‐to‐none modulation moving target case. In this study, we assessed the contribution of dose calculation errors to these phantom results and evaluated their effects on failure rates.
Methods
We evaluated dose calculation errors by comparing the calculation accuracy of various institutions’ treatment planning systems (TPSs) vs IROC‐Houston’s previously established independent dose recalculation system (DRS). Each calculation was compared with the measured dose actually delivered to the phantom; cases in which the recalculation was more accurate were interpreted as a deficiency in the institution's TPS. A total of 258 phantom irradiation plans (172 lung and 86 spine) were recomputed.
Results
Overall, the DRS performed better than the TPSs in 47% of the spine phantom cases. However, the DRS was more accurate in 93% of failing spine phantom cases (with an average improvement of 2.35%), indicating a deficiency in the institution's treatment planning system. Deficiencies in dose calculation accounted for 60% of the overall discrepancy between measured and planned doses among spine phantoms. In contrast, lung phantom DRS calculations were more accurate in only 35% and 42% of all and failing lung phantom cases respectively, indicating that dose calculation errors were not substantially present. These errors accounted for only 30% of the overall discrepancy between measured and planned doses.
Conclusions
Dose calculation errors are common and substantial in IROC spine phantom irradiations, highlighting a major failure mode in this phantom and in clinical treatment management of these cases. In contrast, dose calculation accuracy had only a minimal contribution to failing lung phantom results, indicating that other failure modes drive problems with this phantom and similar clinical treatments.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
The American Association of Physicists in Medicine began the Medical Physics Leadership Academy Journal Club in the fall of 2020. The initiative was launched to provide a forum for medical physicists ...to learn about leadership topics using published material, discuss and reflect on the material, and consider incorporating the discussed skills into their professional practice. This report presents the framework for the MPLA Journal Club program, describes the lessons learned over the last 2 years, summarizes the data collected from attendees, and highlights the roadmap for the program moving forward.
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To standardize and automate the high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy planning quality assurance (QA) process utilizing scripting with application programming interface (API) in a commercially available ...treatment planning system (TPS).
Site- and applicator-dependent plan quality (PQ) evaluation criteria and plan integrity (PI) checklists were established based on published guidelines, clinical protocols, and institutional experience. User designed C# programs ("scripts") were created and executed through the API to access planning information in TPS. A set of standardized quality control reports, focusing on PQ evaluations and PI checks, were automatically generated. Information derived from the TPS was compared against predetermined QA metrics with color-coded pass/fail indicators to aid and enhance the efficiency of plan evaluation. Five independent, blinded observers reviewed mock plans with simulated errors to validate the scripts and to quantify the improvement of plan review efficiency.
Scripts were developed for HDR prostate and breast. Forty-one parameters were reported/checked in the PI report; the PQ report returned dose-volume indices and an independent check of dwell time. All simulated errors were detected by the PI scripts with appropriate warning messages displayed, and any values failing to meet the planning constraints were red-flagged successfully in the PQ report. An average time reduction of 16 min for plan review was observed when using the scripts.
API scripting-based automated planning QA for HDR brachytherapy including PI checks and PQ evaluations was designed and implemented. The simulated error study showed promising results in terms of error catching and efficiency improvement.
A snapshot of medical physics practice patterns Kisling, Kelly D.; Ger, Rachel B.; Netherton, Tucker J. ...
Journal of applied clinical medical physics,
November 2018, Volume:
19, Issue:
6
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
A large number of surveys have been sent to the medical physics community addressing many clinical topics for which the medical physicist is, or may be, responsible. Each survey provides an insight ...into clinical practice relevant to the medical physics community. The goal of this study was to create a summary of these surveys giving a snapshot of clinical practice patterns. Surveys used in this study were created using SurveyMonkey and distributed between February 6, 2013 and January 2, 2018 via the MEDPHYS and MEDDOS listserv groups. The format of the surveys included questions that were multiple choice and free response. Surveys were included in this analysis if they met the following criteria: more than 20 responses, relevant to radiation therapy physics practice, not single‐vendor specific, and formatted as multiple‐choice questions (i.e., not exclusively free‐text responses). Although the results of free response questions were not explicitly reported, they were carefully reviewed, and the responses were considered in the discussion of each topic. Two‐hundred and fifty‐two surveys were available, of which 139 passed the inclusion criteria. The mean number of questions per survey was 4. The mean number of respondents per survey was 63. Summaries were made for the following topics: simulation, treatment planning, electron treatments, linac commissioning and quality assurance, setup and treatment verification, IMRT and VMAT treatments, SRS/SBRT, breast treatments, prostate treatments, brachytherapy, TBI, facial lesion treatments, clinical workflow, and after‐hours/emergent treatments. We have provided a coherent overview of medical physics practice according to surveys conducted over the last 5 yr, which will be instructive for medical physicists.
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The purpose of the study was to develop an optimized, efficient workflow for using the day-of-implant (DOI) CT for treatment planning of accelerated partial breast irradiation brachytherapy using the ...strut-adjusted volume implant (SAVI) device.
For 62 consecutive SAVI patients, a DOI CT was acquired and used for treatment planning. A "verification" CT was acquired 24-72 h after implant and immediately before the first fraction, then registered to the DOI CT. If the DOI CT-based plan was no longer optimal, a replan was performed. An array of metrics describing the geometry of the device and its relative position in the patient from the DOI CTs for these patients was collected. These metrics from the DOI CT were evaluated to determine what features could predict for the need to replan before the first treatment fraction. Logistical regression analysis including χ
tests was used to determine if different factors correlated with replanning.
Twenty-two of 62 patients (35%) required replanning. Only the presence of splayed struts, where splay was toward the skin, and the use of a nine strut ("8-1") SAVI were significantly correlated (p < 0.05) with replanning. Within these individual populations, no additional factors showed a significant statistical correlation for requiring replanning.
For strut-based accelerated partial breast irradiation brachytherapy, it was feasible to treat with a plan based on the DOI CT for a majority (65%) of patients. Some factors correlate to needing replanning; recognizing these could be used to optimize treatment workflow for certain patients, increasing clinical efficiency while enhancing the quality of patient care.
Abstract
Background
Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a common treatment for intracranial lesions. This work explores the state of SRS treatment delivery to characterize current treatment accuracy ...based on treatment parameters.
Methods
NCI clinical trials involving SRS rely on an end-to-end treatment delivery on a patient surrogate (credentialing phantom) from the Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core (IROC) to test their treatment accuracy. The results of 1072 SRS phantom irradiations between 2012 and 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Univariate analysis and random forest models were used to associate irradiation conditions with phantom performance. The following categories were evaluated in terms of how they predicted outcomes: year of irradiation, TPS algorithm, machine model, energy, and delivered field size.
Results
Overall, only 84.6% of irradiations have met the IROC/NCI acceptability criteria. Pass rate has remained constant over time, while dose calculation accuracy has slightly improved. Dose calculation algorithm (P < .001), collimator (P = .024), and field size (P < .001) were statistically significant predictors of pass/fail. Specifically, pencil beam algorithms and cone collimators were more likely to be associated with failing phantom results. Random forest modeling identified the size of the field as the most important factor for passing or failing followed by algorithm.
Conclusion
Constant throughout this retrospective study, approximately 15% of institutions fail to meet IROC/NCI standards for SRS treatment. In current clinical practice, this is particularly associated with smaller fields that yielded less accurate results. There is ongoing need to improve small field dosimetry, beam modeling, and QA to ensure high treatment quality, patient safety, and optimal clinical trials.
Current guidelines for high-dose-rate accelerated partial breast irradiation using single-entry implants are based on the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project B-39/Radiation Therapy ...Oncology Group 0413 protocol, which assumed a balloon implant geometry. We have developed robust plan evaluation criteria specifically for the strut-adjusted volume implant (SAVI).
Plan evaluation criteria were established using a "training data set" of 62 SAVI treatment plans and included the percentage volume of target receiving 90%, 95%, and 100% of the prescription dose (V90, V95, and V100), the absolute volume of target receiving 150% and 200% of prescription (V150 and V200), and the maximum doses to skin (Dskin max) and ribs (Drib max). "Ideal" and "expected" (routinely achievable) thresholds were determined for each criterion and compared to B-39 guidelines. A "test data set" collected from the next 25 patients was analyzed using the developed plan evaluation criteria.
Ideal (expected) dosimetric thresholds established from the training data set were V90 ≥ 98% (95%), V95 ≥ 95% (92%), V100 ≥ 91% (88%), Dskin max < 90% (100%), and Drib max < 100%. Thresholds for V150 and V200 were stratified by SAVI size: V150 ≤ 30 cc (50 cc) and V200 ≤ 15 cc (20 cc) for 6-1 and Mini; V150 ≤ 50 cc (50 cc) and V200 ≤ 20 cc (20 cc) for 8-1 and 10-1. There was no significant difference between the training and test data sets in the fractions of patients meeting the criteria. Overall, 58% and 95% of 87 plans met all ideal and all expected criteria, respectively.
The plan evaluation criteria developed specifically for the SAVI device are robust, providing increased target coverage and increased skin sparing compared to B-39 guidelines.
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