Androulakis, I.; Mestrom, R.M.C.; Christianen, M.E.M.C.; Kolkman-Deurloo, I.-K.K.; van Rhoon, G.C. Simultaneous ThermoBrachytherapy: Electromagnetic Simulation Methods for Fast and Accurate Adaptive Treatment Planning. Sensors2022, 22, 1328.
Androulakis, I.; Mestrom, R.M.C.; Christianen, M.E.M.C.; Kolkman-Deurloo, I.-K.K.; van Rhoon, G.C. Simultaneous ThermoBrachytherapy: Electromagnetic Simulation Methods for Fast and Accurate Adaptive Treatment Planning. Sensors 2022, 22, 1328.
Androulakis, I.; Mestrom, R.M.C.; Christianen, M.E.M.C.; Kolkman-Deurloo, I.-K.K.; van Rhoon, G.C. Simultaneous ThermoBrachytherapy: Electromagnetic Simulation Methods for Fast and Accurate Adaptive Treatment Planning. Sensors2022, 22, 1328.
Androulakis, I.; Mestrom, R.M.C.; Christianen, M.E.M.C.; Kolkman-Deurloo, I.-K.K.; van Rhoon, G.C. Simultaneous ThermoBrachytherapy: Electromagnetic Simulation Methods for Fast and Accurate Adaptive Treatment Planning. Sensors 2022, 22, 1328.
Abstract
The combination of interstitial hyperthermia treatment (IHT) with high dose rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) for prostate cancer treatment and has the potential to improve clinical outcome, since it highly enhances the efficiency of cell kill, especially when applied simultaneously. Therefore, we have developed the ThermoBrachy applicators. To effectively apply optimal targeted IHT, treatment planning is considered essential. However, treatment planning in IHT is rarely applied since it is regarded difficult to accurately calculate the deposited energy in the tissue in a short enough time for clinical practice. In this study, we investigated various time-efficient methods for fast computation of the electromagnetic (EM) energy deposition resulting from the ThermoBrachy applicators. Initially, we investigated the use of an electro-quasistatic solver. Next, we extended our investigation to the application of geometric simplifications. Furthermore, we investigated the validity of the superpositioning principle, which can enable adaptive treatment plan optimization without the need for continuous recomputation of the EM field. Finally, we evaluated the accuracy of the methods by comparing them to the golden standard Finite-Difference Time-Domain calculation method using gamma-index analysis. The simplifications considerably reduced the computation time needed, improving from >12 h to a few seconds. All investigated methods showed excellent agreement with the golden standard by showing a >99% passing rate with 1%/0.5 mm Dose Difference and Distance-to-Agreement criteria. These results allow the proposed electromagnetic simulation method to be used for fast and accurate adaptive treatment planning.
Keywords
Interstitial Hyperthermia; Automated treatment planning; Electromagnetic simulations; ThermoBrachytherapy; High dose rate brachytherapy; Quasistatic simulations; Capacitive heating; Treatment plan optimization; Finite-Difference Time-Domain; Gamma index analysis.
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Oncology and Oncogenics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
,
