Radformation Automation Software Reduces Breast Cancer Planning Time by 85% in Stony Brook University Hospital Study

New York, February 13, 2019

The Department of Radiation Oncology at Stony Brook University Hospital conducted a study that compared commonly used Field-in-Field (FiF) technique with EZFluence, Radformation’s 3D planning software for breast cancer. The study concluded that the time spent creating tangent plans was reduced by 84.6%. The average of 25.6 minutes with manual FiF technique was reduced to an average of 3.7 minutes with EZFluence automation software. (Yoder et al.)

The manual FiF plans and EZFluence plans were compared in Varian Medical Systems’ Eclipse^™ treatment planning system. While the dose to the organs at risk (OARs) were comparable between the manual and automatic techniques, EZFluence was able to reduce the target volume receiving 105% of the prescription dose (V105) for larger breasted patients. Patients with separations greater than 22 cm and target volumes greater than 650 cc benefited from EZFluence due to a lower V105 on average by 4.6%. (Yoder et al.)

“Our [Stony Brook University] results show EZFluence planning technique is the more efficient technique that requires the least planning time while delivering comparable dose to the target volume and limiting dose to the OARs… EZFluence is a better option when comparing to FiF technique in terms of time required for planning while generating a plan that is comparable in all the dose parameters.” (Yoder et al. 2-4)

This study was completed using EZFluence v1.1. Radformation has since released updates that include automated FiF planning, 3- and 4-field breast planning, and the ability to automate planning for multiple sites apart from breast cancer.

Yoder, T., Hsia, A. T., Xu, Z., Stessin, A., & Ryu, S. (2019). Usefulness of EZFluence software for radiotherapy planning of breast cancer treatment. Medical Dosimetry, 1-5. doi:10.1016/j.meddos.2018.12.001