Script development for analysis of lung SBRT treatment plans and its impact on the radiotherapy workflow
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29384/rbfm.2026.v20.19849001895Keywords:
Radiotherapy, Eclipse, ESAPI, Risk Management, Optimization, Lung SBRTAbstract
The automation of processes in radiotherapy is an increasingly discussed topic regarding optimization and safety in this field. This study describes the development of a script for the evaluation of lung SBRT radiotherapy treatment plans in Eclipse TPS v13.6 and analyzes its impact on the workflow of a large radiotherapy institution. The software was developed in a network station external from the hospital’s database, with Eclipse v15.1 and Visual Studio Community, in C# via ESAPI. For the system`s validation, 10 recent lung SBRT cases from the institution were evaluated and the parameters obtained manually were directly compared with those obtained with the script. The evaluation of the tool’s impact on the workflow was conducted by measuring the time it took for 8 medical physicists of the institution to evaluate the plan, with and without the script and the data was statistically analyzed by the paired t-test and Shapiro-Wilk. There was a statistically significant change observed in the plans’ evaluation time, with an average reduction of 63±28%. With that, it was possible to conclude that the use of an automated tool for the treatment plans’ evaluation acts as a safety barrier by both the standardization of processes and use of protocols in the institution and also contributes to the optimization of the process.
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