title: Fully automated volumetric modulated arc therapy plan generation for prostate cancer patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop and evaluate fully automated volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) treatment planning for prostate cancer patients, avoiding manual trial-and-error tweaking of plan parameters by dosimetrists.
  
  
  METHODS
  A system was developed for fully automated generation of VMAT plans with our commercial clinical treatment planning system (TPS), linked to the in-house developed Erasmus-iCycle multicriterial optimizer for preoptimization. For 30 randomly selected patients, automatically generated VMAT plans (VMATauto) were compared with VMAT plans generated manually by 1 expert dosimetrist in the absence of time pressure (VMATman). For all treatment plans, planning target volume (PTV) coverage and sparing of organs-at-risk were quantified.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All generated plans were clinically acceptable and had similar PTV coverage (V95% > 99%). For VMATauto and VMATman plans, the organ-at-risk sparing was similar as well, although only the former plans were generated without any planning workload.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Fully automated generation of high-quality VMAT plans for prostate cancer patients is feasible and has recently been implemented in our clinic.
authors: Department of Radiation Oncology, Erasmus MC-Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: p.voet@erasmusmc.nl.
authors: Peter W J
authors: PW
authors: Voet
authors: Department of Radiation Oncology, Erasmus MC-Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Maarten L P
authors: ML
authors: Dirkx
authors: Department of Radiation Oncology, Erasmus MC-Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Sebastiaan
authors: S
authors: Breedveld
authors: Department of Radiation Oncology, Erasmus MC-Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Abrahim
authors: A
authors: Al-Mamgani
authors: Department of Radiation Oncology, Erasmus MC-Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Luca
authors: L
authors: Incrocci
authors: Department of Radiation Oncology, Erasmus MC-Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Ben J M
authors: BJ
authors: Heijmen
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001003:Anal Canal / Q000528:radiation effects; D001331:Automation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D058958:Organs at Risk; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D050397:Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated / Q000379:methods*; D012007:Rectum / Q000528:radiation effects; D012306:Risk; D012984:Software; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D001743:Urinary Bladder / Q000528:radiation effects