ABSTRACT
Objective:To propose an automatic planning approach for Eclipse15.6 planning system based on Eclipse scripting application programming interface (ESAPI) and evaluate its clinical application.Methods:20 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and 20 cases of rectal cancer were selected in the clinical planning. The developed automatic planning script SmartPlan and RapidPlan were used for automatic planning and dosimetric parameters were compared with manual planning. The differences were compared between two groups by using Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results:The dosimetric results of automatic and manual plans could meet clinical requirements. There was no significant difference in target coverage in nasopharyngeal carcinoma planning between two groups ( P>0.05), and automatic plans were superior to manual plans in organs at risk sparing ( P<0.05). Except for the homogeneity index of PTV and the maximum dose of bowel in rectal cancer plans, the other dosimetric parameters of the automatic plans were better than those of the manual plans (all P<0.05). Conclusions:Compared with the manual plans, the automatic plans have the same or similar target coverage, similar or better protection of organs at risk, and more convenient implementation. The developed SmartPlan based on ESAPI has clinical feasibility and effectiveness.
ABSTRACT
Objective:To help clinicians simplify the post-processing operations of structures by developing rapid processing software for target area and organs at risk structures based on ESAPI.Methods:SmartStructure script software was developed based on ESAPI, verified and evaluated in clinical work. 10 cases of rectal cancer receiving neoadjuvant radiotherapy, 10 breast cancer treated with postoperative radiotherapy, 10 cervical cancer receiving postoperative radiotherapy, 10 nasopharyngeal carcinoma receiving radical radiotherapy and 10 lung stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) were selected, and different types of tumors had different post-processing operations of structures. In each case, three methods were used for post-processing of structures. In the control group (manual group), normal manual processing was employed. In the experimental group 1(SmaStru-N group), scripts without templates were utilized. In the experimental group 2(SmaStru-P group). scripts combined with templates were adopted. The processing time of the three methods was compared. Clinicians scored the scripting software from multiple aspects and compared the feeling scores of scripting software and manual operation.Results:All three methods can be normally applied in clinical settings. The error rate in the manual group was 7.0%, 3.0% in the SmaStru-N group 0% in the SmaStru-P group, respectively. Compared with the manual method, SmaStru-N shortened the processing time of target area and organs at risk by 60.9% and 93.3% for SmaStru-P. In addition, SmartStructure was superior to manual method in terms of using feeling scores. Clinicians gave lower score for the" applicability" and" simplicity" , and higher score on the" accuracy" and" efficiency" .Conclusions:Compared with conventional manual structure processing method, SmartStructure software can rapidly and accurately process all structures of the target area and organs at risk, and its advantages become more obvious with the increasing number of structures that need to be processed. SmartStructure software can meet clinical requirements, reduce the error rate, elevate processing speed, improve the working efficiency of clinicians, providing basis for the development of adaptive radiotherapy.