Incorporating clinical factors in plan optimization

Abstract

Numerous clinical factors which are typically ignored in plan optimization can affect the choice of treatment plans or can compromise the realization of a treatment plan over the course of a treatment. For example, plan complexity and time constraints can affect the preference in choice of plans, while factors such as setup errors and organ motion can compromise the resulting delivered dose distribution. In this work, we describe methodologies which allow the investigation of many of these factors as part of a generalized plan optimization system.