Immersive visualization with automated collision detection for radiotherapy treatment planning

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2007:125:491-6.

Abstract

Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is a technique for treating cancer tumours using external delivery of radiation. To create a treatment plan the directions of the external radiation beams (typically 5 to 9) need to be specified. Normally the beams are all coplanar due to the added complexity of planning and patient set-up for non-coplanar beams. RTStar provides a virtual environment of a radiotherapy (RT) treatment room that provides a range of views and visualizations that aid a treatment planner to choose non-coplanar beam directions efficiently. RTStar also automatically warns the planner when a collision would occur during patient set-up. A study was conducted on 8 prostate IMRT cancer patients using RTStar to create RT plans using non-coplanar beams. The study demonstrated that these IMRT prostate plans with non-coplanar beams had a dosimetric advantage over their coplanar conterparts.

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation*
  • Humans
  • Radiotherapy, Computer-Assisted*
  • Software
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • User-Computer Interface*
  • Vision, Ocular*