A new method for quantitative evaluation of target volume variations in radiotherapy planning

Abstract

A new method for three-dimensional quantitative evaluation of target volume delineation is presented. It is composed by a new 3D reconstruction method called Origami, based on the combination of two bidimensional analysis of the volume of each organ instead of one 3D analysis, and a 3D description of the error distribution in the space. The Origami method avoid external errors introduced by a 3D rendering and has shown to work correctly in both convex and convex-concave volumes, accurately fitting the contours of the planning study. Its performance has been evaluated comparing it with the Convex Hull algorithm using Delaunay triangulation, resulting in a much more adjusted evaluation. Moreover, Origami computes thousands of control points in less than one second in a common PC. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.