Technical note: A software tool to extract complexity metrics from radiotherapy treatment plans

IF 3.2 2区医学 Q1 RADIOLOGY, NUCLEAR MEDICINE & MEDICAL IMAGING

Medical physics Pub Date : 2024-08-26 DOI:10.1002/mp.17365

Samuele Cavinato, Alessandro Scaggion, Marta Paiusco

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Complexity metrics are mathematical quantities designed to quantify aspects of radiotherapy treatment plans that may affect both their deliverability and dosimetric accuracy. Despite numerous studies investigating their utility, there remains a notable absence of shared tools for their extraction.

Purpose

This study introduces UCoMX (Universal Complexity Metrics Extractor), a software package designed for the extraction of complexity metrics from the DICOM-RT plan files of radiotherapy treatments.

Methods

UCoMX is developed around two extraction engines: VCoMX (VMAT Complexity Metrics Extractor) for VMAT/IMRT plans, and TCoMX (Tomotherapy Complexity Metrics Extractor) tailored for Helical Tomotherapy plans. The software, built using Matlab, is freely available in both Matlab-based and stand-alone versions. More than 90 complexity metrics, drawn from relevant literature, are implemented in the package: 43 for VMAT/IMRT and 51 for Helical Tomotherapy.

Results

The package is designed to read DICOM-RT plan files generated by most commercially available Treatment Planning Systems (TPSs), across various treatment units. A reference dataset containing VMAT, IMRT, and Helical Tomotherapy plans is provided to serve as a reference for comparing UCoMX with other in-house systems available at other centers.

Conclusion

UCoMX offers a straightforward solution for extracting complexity metrics from radiotherapy plans. Its versatility is enhanced through different versions, including Matlab-based and stand-alone, and its compatibility with a wide range of commercially available TPSs and treatment units. UCoMX presents a free, user-friendly tool empowering researchers to compute the complexity of treatment plans efficiently.

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技术说明：从放射治疗计划中提取复杂性指标的软件工具。

背景：复杂性指标是一种数学量，旨在量化放疗治疗计划中可能影响其可送达性和剂量测定准确性的方面。目的：本研究介绍了 UCoMX（通用复杂度指标提取器），这是一款用于从 DICOM-RT 放射治疗计划文件中提取复杂度指标的软件包：方法：UCoMX 是围绕两个提取引擎开发的：方法：UCoMX 是围绕两个提取引擎开发的：用于 VMAT/IMRT 计划的 VCoMX（VMAT 复杂性指标提取器）和为螺旋断层计划量身定制的 TCoMX（断层治疗复杂性指标提取器）。该软件使用 Matlab 构建，有基于 Matlab 的免费版本和独立版本。软件包从相关文献中提取了 90 多个复杂度指标：43 个用于 VMAT/IMRT，51 个用于螺旋断层治疗：该软件包可读取大多数市售治疗计划系统（TPS）生成的 DICOM-RT 计划文件，适用于各种治疗单元。提供了一个包含 VMAT、IMRT 和螺旋断层治疗计划的参考数据集，作为将 UCoMX 与其他中心的其他内部系统进行比较的参考：结论：UCoMX 为从放疗计划中提取复杂性指标提供了一个直接的解决方案。通过不同的版本（包括基于 Matlab 的版本和独立版本）以及与各种商用 TPS 和治疗设备的兼容性，UCoMX 的通用性得到了增强。UCoMX 是一款免费、用户友好的工具，可帮助研究人员高效计算治疗计划的复杂性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Medical physics 医学-核医学

CiteScore

6.80

自引率

15.80%

发文量

660

审稿时长

1.7 months

期刊介绍： Medical Physics publishes original, high impact physics, imaging science, and engineering research that advances patient diagnosis and therapy through contributions in 1) Basic science developments with high potential for clinical translation 2) Clinical applications of cutting edge engineering and physics innovations 3) Broadly applicable and innovative clinical physics developments Medical Physics is a journal of global scope and reach. By publishing in Medical Physics your research will reach an international, multidisciplinary audience including practicing medical physicists as well as physics- and engineering based translational scientists. We work closely with authors of promising articles to improve their quality.