ABSTRACT
Now into the third decade of computerized 3D treatment planning, nearly all radiotherapy patients’ intended treatments will be reviewed on a computer screen in a commercial treatment planning system (TPS). The purpose of treatment plan evaluation might appear self-evident, but it is worthwhile to explicitly state that the goal is to ensure that the course of radiotherapy simulated in the TPS has fulfilled the physician’s therapeutic intent while minimizing harm to healthy tissues. In simple palliative treatments (e.g., spinal cord compressions or whole brain) (Halperin et al. 2008), this evaluation can be as straightforward as verifying (a) the patient’s setup (b) the shape of a collimating block relative to the patient’s anatomy, (c) confirming that the dose prescription and fractionation are appropriate to the patient’s diagnosis, and (d) that the beam energy and monitor units correspond to that prescription. A review of 3D dose distributions and dose-volume histograms (DVHs), should any exist, would appear unnecessary as they add little value to the evaluation process.
