RADBIOMOD: A simple program for utilising biological modelling in radiotherapy plan evaluation

Area of Science:

• Medical Physics
• Radiation Oncology
• Computational Biology

Background:

• Current radiotherapy plan evaluation relies on physical parameters, which have limitations in predicting clinical outcomes.
• Biological modeling offers a more accurate method for evaluating radiotherapy plans and predicting treatment success.
• Further research is needed to integrate biological modeling into clinical practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate RADBIOMOD, a user-friendly software tool for biological modeling in radiotherapy plan evaluation.
• To incorporate multiple established biological models into a single, accessible platform.
• To assess the accuracy and reliability of RADBIOMOD compared to existing calculators.

Main Methods:

• RADBIOMOD was developed using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in Microsoft Excel.
• The software integrates various biological models, including tumor control probability (TCP) and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) models.
• RADBIOMOD's performance was validated against 15 sample cases using existing biological modeling calculators.

Main Results:

• RADBIOMOD demonstrated high accuracy, with mean absolute errors and root mean square errors below 1% across all tested models.
• The program's results were non-significantly different from established biological modeling calculators.
• The software provides reliable calculations for various biological endpoints.

Conclusions:

• RADBIOMOD is a validated and accurate tool for biological modeling in radiotherapy.
• The user-friendly interface and accessibility of RADBIOMOD are expected to facilitate further research in the field.
• This tool can aid in the transition of biological modeling from research to clinical application.