Automatizing a nonscripting TPS for optimizing clinical workflow and reoptimizing IMRT/VMAT plans

The purpose of this study was to design a toolkit that interacts with the Monaco (Elekta AB, Stockholm, Sweden) treatment planning system (TPS) for optimization of intensity-modulated radiation therapy and volumetric-modulated arc therapy without the need for a dedicated application programming interface. Successful inverse planning of radiotherapeutic treatment depends on the tweaking of many parameters; a tool was thus needed to explore these parameters more exhaustively without significantly increasing planning time. The software that we used was based on an open-source library that mimics human interaction with Microsoft Windows applications. We developed a simple Autoflow software routine that analyzes and optimizes calculated plans by considering the relative impact of different cost functions and modifying constraints accordingly. It was also designed to change segmentation parameters to fit more complex treatments. The toolkit is publicly available for download at https://bitbucket.org/hgugmradiofisica/pymonaco/src/master/. A study of prostate cancer cases was conducted to compare automatically created plans with previously treated cases. The toolkit fully automated the radiotherapy planning procedure, allowing the TPS to calculate or optimize plans during nonworking hours. In the prostate study, the use of this tool reduced the dose to organs at risk with a negligible decrease in target coverage. This tool enables the efficient use of the TPS, allowing research and clinical applications to coexist without conflict. It provides consistency and efficiency throughout the treatment planning process, which may be of great value to clinics with few resources. The impact of this tool on clinical workflow is important, as it not only provides better efficiency, but also increases treatment quality.