Development and validation of an automated evaluation system for lattice radiotherapy using a commercial treatment planning system scripting API.

PURPOSE: Clinical implementation of lattice radiotherapy (LRT) remains constrained by the absence of standardized, automated tools for comprehensive post-plan dosimetric analysis within commercial treatment planning systems (TPS). Herein, an automated script-based tool was developed using the Eclipse Scripting API (ESAPI) to enable rapid, standardized calculation of key LRT-specific metrics, including peak-to-valley dose ratio (PVDR), equivalent uniform dose (EUD), and ablative dose ratio (ADR).

METHODS

A modular computational architecture comprising four functional layers was implemented: (1) user interface for protocol configuration, (2) computation layer integrating multiple PVDR algorithms, (3) data service layer providing direct read-only access to three-dimensional dose and anatomical data via ESAPI, and (4) reporting module. To accommodate ESAPI security restrictions, a dual-script architecture incorporating a preprocessing sphere segmentation module was established. Validation was performed using a retrospective cohort of 12 lung cancer LRT patients, with accuracy assessed against manual TPS measurements and established reference values.

RESULTS

Concordance between automated and manual TPS measurements was high. Standard dose-volume parameter extraction exhibited perfect agreement. For spatially explicit PVDR analysis, mean absolute error relative to manual profile assessment was 0.034 (absolute VPDR units). EUD calculations deviated less than 3% from published reference data. Evaluation time per plan was reduced from 15.41 ± 3.20 min (manual) to 1.97 ± 0.34 min (automated), representing a 7.8-fold efficiency gain with elimination of inter-operator variability.

CONCLUSION

This ESAPI-based tool automates and standardizes dosimetric evaluation of LRT, addressing a practical workflow bottleneck. Integration of multiple calculation methods within a deterministic framework establishes a shareable benchmark for consistent multi-institutional analysis, providing a foundation for future investigations correlating detailed dosimetric parameters with clinical outcomes in spatially fractionated radiotherapy.