Automated IMRT planning in Pinnacle : A study in head-and-neck cancer.

PURPOSE: This study evaluates the performance and planning efficacy of the Auto-Planning (AP) module in the clinical version of Pinnacle 9.10 (Philips Radiation Oncology Systems, Fitchburg, WI, USA).

METHODS AND MATERIALS: Twenty automated intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) plans were compared with the original manually planned clinical IMRT plans from patients with oropharyngeal cancer.

RESULTS

Auto-Planning with IMRT offers similar coverage of the planning target volume as the original manually planned clinical plans, as well as better sparing of the contralateral parotid gland, contralateral submandibular gland, larynx, mandible, and brainstem. The mean dose of the contralateral parotid gland and contralateral submandibular gland could be reduced by 2.5 Gy and 1.7 Gy on average. The number of monitor units was reduced with an average of 143.9 (18%). Hands-on planning time was reduced from 1.5-3 h to less than 1 h.

CONCLUSIONS

The Auto-Planning module was able to produce clinically acceptable head and neck IMRT plans with consistent quality.