ABSTRACT
Stand-alone treatment planning systems (TPSs) are used to prepare treatment plans to be used on general-purpose accelerators. ey are generally networked to other pieces of equipment used in the radiotherapy department. e main data exchanges are with imaging equipment as input and record-and-verify systems (RVSs) as output. eir main functionalities are the following:
Calculation of the dose distribution and monitor units for • a given beam setup Optimization of the beam parameters (particularly the • intensity modulation) to match predened criteria Preparation of the beam parameters and reference images • to be exported to the treatment machine (generally through an RVS)
e TPS is a critical component of the radiotherapy process because any incorrect beam parameter-including monitor units-that would be obtained from a computed plan could be used as such for treatment. Actually, several severe accidents have been reported as a consequence of the improper use of a TPS.
