Analysis of outcomes in radiation oncology: An integrated computational platform

Dezhi Liu, Munther Ajlouni, Jian Yue Jin, Samuel Ryu, Farzan Siddiqui, Anushka Patel, Benjamin Movsas, Indrin J. Chetty

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Radiotherapy research and outcome analyses are essential for evaluating new methods of radiation delivery and for assessing the benefits of a given technology on locoregional control and overall survival. In this article, a computational platform is presented to facilitate radiotherapy research and outcome studies in radiation oncology. This computational platform consists of (1) an infrastructural database that stores patient diagnosis, IMRT treatment details, and follow-up information, (2) an interface tool that is used to import and export IMRT plans in DICOM RT and AAPM/RTOG formats from a wide range of planning systems to facilitate reproducible research, (3) a graphical data analysis and programming tool that visualizes all aspects of an IMRT plan including dose, contour, and image data to aid the analysis of treatment plans, and (4) a software package that calculates radiobiological models to evaluate IMRT treatment plans. Given the limited number of general-purpose computational environments for radiotherapy research and outcome studies, this computational platform represents a powerful and convenient tool that is well suited for analyzing dose distributions biologically and correlating them with the delivered radiation dose distributions and other patient-related clinical factors. In addition the database is web-based and accessible by multiple users, facilitating its convenient application and use.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1680-1689
Number of pages10
JournalMedical Physics
Volume36
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Biologically effective dose
  • Outcome study
  • Radiobiological model

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biophysics
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Analysis of outcomes in radiation oncology: An integrated computational platform'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this