Program Information

Design of a Graphical User Interface for An In-House Monte Carlo Based Treatment Planning System: Planning and Contouring Tools

M EMAM

M EMAM¹*, A Eldib^1,2 , M Lin³ , J Li² , O Chibani² , C Ma² , (1) Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt, (2) Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, (3) University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

Presentations

SU-E-T-595 Sunday 3:00PM - 6:00PM Room: Exhibit Hall

Purpose: An in-house Monte Carlo based treatment planning system (MC TPS) has been developed for modulated electron radiation therapy (MERT). Our preliminary MERT planning experience called for a more user friendly graphical user interface. The current work aimed to design graphical windows and tools to facilitate the contouring and planning process.
Methods: Our In-house GUI MC TPS is built on a set of EGS4 user codes namely MCPLAN and MCBEAM in addition to an in-house optimization code, which was named as MCOPTIM. Patient virtual phantom is constructed using the tomographic images in DICOM format exported from clinical treatment planning systems (TPS). Treatment target volumes and critical structures were usually contoured on clinical TPS and then sent as a structure set file. In our GUI program we developed a visualization tool to allow the planner to visualize the DICOM images and delineate the various structures. We implemented an option in our code for automatic contouring of the patient body and lungs. We also created an interface window displaying a three dimensional representation of the target and also showing a graphical representation of the treatment beams.
Results: The new GUI features helped streamline the planning process. The implemented contouring option eliminated the need for performing this step on clinical TPS. The auto detection option for contouring the outer patient body and lungs was tested on patient CTs and it was shown to be accurate as compared to that of clinical TPS. The three dimensional representation of the target and the beams allows better selection of the gantry, collimator and couch angles.
Conclusion: An in-house GUI program has been developed for more efficient MERT planning. The application of aiding tools implemented in the program is time saving and gives better control of the planning process.



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