[Implementation of receiver operating characteristics for the quantitative evaluation of stereotactic radiotherapy...

The definition of criteria and of a methodology dedicated to the quantitative evaluation of conformal stereotactic treatment plans is presented. We implemented the 'Receiver Operating Characteristics' (ROC) analysis, already used in medical imaging, for the quantitative evaluation of irradiation treatment plans. This implementation is based on data provided by dose-volume histograms (DVH). Three techniques, each one using a different dosimetric criterion, were defined for the choice of a reference isodose for a given treatment plan. We used this ROC analysis for the selection of the most conformal treatment plan and its reference isodose among the treatment plans proposed for one patient. This study revealed the interest of ROC analysis based on dose-volume histograms for the quantitative evaluation of treatment plans.