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SU-E-T-305: Limitations of Using DICOM Data for BrachyVision Treatment Plan Evaluation
B Sun1, J Kavanaugh1, D Yang1
1Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO.
Medical Physics
|May 19, 2017
Summary
An automated quality assurance tool accurately retrieves organ doses for HDR-brachytherapy and IMRT patients. However, it underestimates maximal doses due to DICOM file limitations.
Area of Science:
- Medical Physics
- Radiation Oncology
Background:
- Gynecological (GYN) cancers are treated with concurrent high-dose rate brachytherapy and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).
- Accurate dosimetric quality assurance (QA) is crucial for patient safety and treatment efficacy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the accuracy of a real-time automated dosimetric QA method using Eclipse DICOM files.
- To evaluate this method for patients undergoing HDR-brachytherapy and IMRT.
Main Methods:
- Developed an in-house QA program using Matlab to analyze DICOM files containing dose-volume histogram (DVH) data for organs at risk (OARs).
- Collected dosimetric data for bladder, rectum, and sigmoid from 7 GYN patients (42 fractions).
- Compared parameters from the DICOM-based QA program with those from BrachyVision.
Main Results:
- The automated program reported maximal doses (Dmax) for OARs 36.2%-48.3% lower than BrachyVision.
- Mean dose deviation ranged from 1% to 2.4%.
- Dose to 2cc (D2cc) differed up to 7.6% for structures >200 cc, averaging 0.5% for structures <200 cc.
Conclusions:
- The automated QA tool offers rapid dose retrieval for OARs and target coverage.
- Maximal dose calculations are inaccurate due to DVH data truncation in DICOM files, affecting accuracy for larger structures.
