Evaluation of Eclipse 3D plans using an independent treatment planning system

Purpose: The goal of the current investigation was to compare complex 3D conformal plans generated on Eclipse™ treatment planning system (TPS) with independent dose calculations from radiation oncology planning system (ROPS™) TPS used as a secondary quality assurance check.Methods: Fifteen cancer patients that were treated with complex conformal treatment plans with cobalt and linac beams, using Eclipse TPS, were selected for this study. The structure sets, treatment beam data and prescription information were exported from the Eclipse TPS using DICOM-RT export. Using custom software, these data were imported into ROPS TPS. Independent dose calculation on the ROPS planning system using Clarkson summation algorithm was done. The dose volume histograms (DVH) from both planning systems were extracted and analyzed using custom software. Dose assessment was accomplished by defining criteria based on gross tumor volume (GTV) dose coverage, dose homogeneity and mean dose. For organs at risk (OAR) other than GTV, the main dose parameters were, mean dose and percentage of volume receiving 95% of prescription dose.Results: For the GTV, all 15 cases met the criteria set for the mean dose and dose homogeneity index. However, breast cases were found to have deviation in the percentage volume receiving the 95% of prescription dose.Conclusion: Using the criteria set for plan acceptance, all the 15 clinical cases were evaluated. Except for breast tangent plans, all plans passed all the criteria set. The large deviation for breast tangent plans was attributed to differences in dose calculation algorithms