Assessment the performances of four commercial treatment planning systems for simultaneous integrated boost IMRT of prostate cancer

This study aims to use the Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) technique for prostate cancer patients to evaluate the effectiveness of four different commercial Treatment Planning Systems (TPS): (Eclipse, Monaco, Ray plan, and Prowess). In terms of Conformality Index, Homogeneity Index, the dose distributions, the mean dose, the maximum dose, number of segments in each plan for each TPS, Monitor Units per fraction for each treatment plan for each TPS, coverage of the PTVs, and avoidance of Organs At Risk (OARs) for Simultaneous Integrated Boost (SIB) for cancer prostate treatment plans.
CT images and volumes structure of 10 patients were used to make IMRT plans. The target volume’s structure was contoured according to RTOG 0534 protocol. Fixed beam geometry and clinical goals were set for all individual patient plans. The results were analyzed in terms of dosimetric parameters, the number of segments, and monitor units per segment.
All TPSs achieve similar coverage, and dose distributions to the PTVs. For PTV60 Eclipse achieved the lowest coverage relative to other planning and the nearest mean dose to prescription dose and significant difference relative to other planning. For PTV 44: the Ray plan achieved the best coverage with a significant difference relative to other systems, but Eclipse achieved the nearest mean dose to the prescribed dose with a significant difference relative to the ray plan. Prowess achieved the lowest MU/fraction with a significant difference relative to Monaco the highest in Mus and the lowest possible number of segments.
The four planning systems achieve close dose distributions and confirmation numbers but there is a significant difference in total segments per fraction and total monitor units per fraction which affect the long life of the machine and the session treatment time.