Tomas Drizdal
For hyperthermia treatments of deep seated tumours, a phased array configuration of 4-24 radiofrequency antennas is generally used. Patient specific hyperthermia treatment planning (HTP) can be used to find the optimal settings of the signals feeding the antennas for maximizing the power deposition in the tumour area. The objective of this study was to develop a universal HTP system available for all applicators in a clinical practice with reduced required manual operator interaction. In the first step we have developed fully parametrized models of all available applicators in the Python interface of the Sim4Life simulation package (v. 7.0, ZürichMedTech, Zürich, Switzerland). This was followed by the development of position routines enabling to automatically place the patient model in all applicators and to prescribe the patient 3D model position inside an applicator. Then we developed procedures for automatic dielectric tissue assignment and submission to the calculation clusters. Additionally, an extraction procedure of the EM filed simulations in a format compatible with visualization tool for electromagnetic dosimetry and optimization, i.e. VEDO, was developed. As a last step, an intuitive user interface enabling control over the whole HTP process was programmed. An automated positioning routine decreases the operator time on average by 10-20 minutes per patient specific HTP. The new universal HTP tool allows unification of all hyperthermia treatment planning within a single simulation platform. This results in simplification of the overall HTP process, reduces required personal training and limits software and hardware validation to a single platform.
