Development of a versatile deep hyperthermia treatment planning tool

Purpose: To develop and test a versatile deep hyperthermia treatment planning (HTP) tool. Methods: A patient automatic positioning routine following manual clinical procedure was implemented into a newly developed versatile HTP tool. For 70 patients treated using Sigma 60 applicator, 48 patients with the Sigma Eye applicator, we compared predicted specific absorption rate (SAR) indicators obtained by manual and automatic positioning routines. We used the target to hotspot coefficient (THQ) representing the ratio between average SAR in target and hotspot, TC25 and TC50 defined as target volume enclosed with 25% and 50% SAR iso-contour. Further, we created example HTP setups for Sigma Ellipse, Alba4D and AMC8 applicators demonstrating the versatility of the tool. Results: For the Sigma 60 and the Sigma Eye, we found a highest average relative difference of 2% for all studied SAR indicators when comparing manual and automatically created HTP setups. Overall, the automatic positioning procedure is highly efficient and operator time for building a single patient specific HTP setup is 10–20 min faster. Conclusion: On average, the automatic positioning routine is more time efficient and provides similar SAR target coverage compared to manual positioning by experienced staff. The reduced time requirement supports wider HTP acceptance in the clinical routine.