Remote EPID-based dosimetric auditing using DVH patient dose analysis

Abstract

The aim of this work was to develop and validate a method for remote dosimetric auditing that enables dose-volume histogram parameter comparisons of measured and planned dose in the patient CT volume. The method is derived by adapting and combining a remote electronic portal imaging (EPID) based auditing method (Virtual Epid based Standard Phantom Audit - VESPA) and a method to estimate 3D in-patient dose distributions from planar dosimetric measurements. The method was tested with a series of error-induced plans including monitor unit and multileaf collimator (MLC) positioning errors. A pilot audit study was conducted with eleven radiotherapy centres. IMRT plans from two clinical trials, a post-prostatectomy (RAVES trial) plan and a head and neck (HPV trial) plan were utilized. Clinically relevant DVH parameters for the planned dose and estimated measured dose were compared. The method was found to reproduce the induced dose errors within 0.5% and was sensitive to MLC positioning errors as small as 0.5 mm. For the RAVES plan audit all DVH results except one were within 3% and for the HPV plan audit all DVH results were within 3% except three with a maximum difference of 3.2%. The results from the audit method produce clinically meaningful DVH metrics for the audited plan and could enable an improved understanding of a centre's radiotherapy quality.