Speaker
Description
Radiotherapy remains a cornerstone of breast cancer treatment, with IMRT offering precise dose delivery while sparing healthy tissues. Treatment planning systems (TPS) frequently incor-porate a smoothing function for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) plans. This enables users to modify the intricacy of the beam fluence pattern in the x-y direction. Smoothing factor is a key parameter, affecting plan complexity, monitor units (MU) and treatment time.
This study evaluates the impact of SF on IMRT plan efficiency and quality. IMRT plans were generated for 21 patients with SF values ranging from 10 to 300, analyzing 126 plans using dose-volume histograms (DVH), modulation complexity score (MCS), and statistical testing (ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc analysis). The planned dose was15x2,67Gy. We calculated the modulat-ing complexity score. It is imperative to minimise the complexity and enhance the robustness of the beam. This is due to the potential for a discrepancy between the planned and actual dose dis-tribution. Our findings indicate that decreasing the smoothing parameters improves the plan quali-ty but reduces the deliverability (MCS value), while increasing them decreases the complexity and plan quality. Results indicate that an SF range of 100-150 achieves optimal treatment efficiency while maintaining plan quality. This balance reduces treatment time and MU while ensuring adequate dose distribution and minimizing lung exposure. Optimizing SF can enhance personali-zed radiotherapy planning, improving clinical outcomes.
References
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