查看文章

Our aim was to develop a framework to objectively perform treatment planning studies using Pareto fronts. The Pareto front represents all optimal possible tradeoffs among several conflicting criteria and is an ideal tool with which to study the possibilities of a given treatment technique. The framework should require minimal user interaction and should resemble and be applicable to daily clinical practice.

To generate the Pareto fronts, we used the native scripting language of Pinnacle³ (Philips Healthcare, Andover, MA). The framework generates thousands of plans automatically from which the Pareto front is generated. As an example, the framework is applied to compare intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) with volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) for prostate cancer patients. For each patient and each technique, 3000 plans are generated, resulting in a total …