Radiation therapy firm Varian Medical Systems' RapidPlan treatment planning software can improve quality control in radiotherapy and radiosurgery treatment plans, according to research presented at the 2016 American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) conference.
Researchers found that using the RapidPlan tool helped them develop plans that improved the targeting of tumors and spared more healthy tissue.
RapidPlan is a machine-learning tool that studies best practices from past successful treatment plans and creates knowledge-based treatment models that are applied to improve treatment plans for future patients, the firm said. The RapidPlan models help generate and validate new treatment plans based on shared expertise.
Kathryn Masi and Maria Ditman from the University of Michigan found that RapidPlan software creates consistent and efficient plans while standardizing the treatment planning process, Varian said. They used a prostate-specific RapidPlan model based on 60 prostate intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) plans.
Applying their knowledge-based planning model to 10 patients from four community-based clinics, the researchers found that RapidPlan could improve the quality control of smaller community-based clinics by helping them "identify the areas of their treatment plans that may be improved, whether it be in normal-tissue sparing or improved target coverage," according to Varian and the AAPM abstract.
Similar findings were reported by researchers conducting a multi-institutional phase II clinical trial sponsored by the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) for patients with uterine cervix or vaginal cancer. Using their model, the researchers reported that RapidPlan greatly improved plan quality assurance for IMRT pretreatment plans, the company said.
