TOPIC

A highly efficient and cost effective software solution for independently checking the transfer of radiotherapy plans and import into treatment unit

Summary

Clinical scientists in consultation with radiographers at BHOC are looking to improve and ultimately commercialise in-house clinical software, to reduce the risks of mistreatments during radiotherapy cancer treatment.

Advanced radiotherapy machines target the tumour more accurately. Finely engineered components in the linear accelerator (Linac) radiotherapy treatment machine shape the radiation beam and modulate the dose directed at the tumour.

This high complexity makes it very important to have a high level of confidence in correct treatment delivery. A multi-disciplinary team uses radiotherapy treatment planning software to calculate and optimise dose to the tumour, producing a treatment plan individualised to the patient. Each plan uses a unique combination of Linac parameter settings. The treatment plan produced is electronically transferred and imported into the Linac. Due to the high complexity traditional methods of checking the transfer and import are no longer feasible. A solution for complex plans is a measurement of every patient treatment in a mock-up model of the patient, before the first treatment but this is resource and cost intensive.

We have developed a highly automated and accurate prototype system (TOPIC) for checking the plan import. The assurance TOPIC gives us means we no longer carry out resource intensive tasks to check the plan integrity. We have been using the prototype TOPIC software since September 2017 and have already picked up 4 errors which would have compromised treatment quality. We now intend to build on this work and apply for a NIHR Invention for Innovation funding, to enable us to convert our clinical prototype into structured fully documented software 'product' more suitable for commercial implementation.