eIMRT: a web platform for the verification and optimization of radiation treatment plans

Abstract

The eIMRT platform is a remote distributed computing tool that provides users Internet access to three different services: Monte Carlo optimization of treatment plans, CRT & IMRT treatment optimization and a database of relevant radiation treatments/clinical cases. These services are accessible through a user-friendly and platform independent web page. Its flexible and scalable design focuses on providing the final users services rather than a collection of software pieces. All input and output data (CT, contours, treatment plans and dose distributions) are handled using the DICOM format.
The design, implementation and support of the verification and optimization algorithms are hidden to the user. This allows a unified, robust handling of the software and hardware that enables these computation-intensive services. The eIMRT platform is currently hosted by the Galician Supercomputing Center (CESGA) and may be accessible upon request (there is a demo version at http://eimrt.cesga.es:8080/eIMRT2/demo ; request access to eimrt@cesga.es if necessary).
This paper describes all aspects of the eIMRT algorithms in depth, its user interface, and the outcome of its services. Due to the flexible design of the platform, it has numerous applications including the intercenter comparison of treatment planning, the quality assurance of radiation treatments, the design and implementation of new approaches to certain types of treatments, the sharing of information on radiation treatment techniques, etc.
In addition, the web platform and software tools developed for treatment verification and optimization have a modular design that enables its extension with new different algorithms for the same purposes.