Ensuring High Quality Treatment Plans with a Plan Quality Review Checklist.

Treatment plan quality is a crucial component for a successful outcome of radiation therapy treatments. As the complexity of radiation therapy planning and delivery techniques increases, the role of the medical physicist in assessing treatment plan quality becomes more critical. Integrating plan quality review throughout the treatment planning process allows improvements without delaying treatment or rushing to produce changes at the last minute. In this work, we aim to provide practical check items for physicists to reference when assessing treatment plan quality with a critical eye, asking questions such as "is this the best dose distribution feasible for this patient?," "could we change any planning parameters to improve plan quality?," and "could we change the planning strategy for this particular patient or for future patients?"; and to work with planners and physicians to create a multidisciplinary collaborative culture that achieves the best plan feasible for every patient. We tabulate the features that affect plan quality in each process step and check details for individual items. This report is aimed at medical physicists, planners, radiation oncologists, and other professionals who are involved in treatment planning.
Competing Interests: Disclosures James A. Kavanaugh reports receiving honoraria from Varian Medical. Dustin Jacqmin reports receiving payment from ASTRO/Veteran's Health Administration and holds an unpaid leadership role as Chair of the Working Group on Treatment Planning at AAPM. Sean L. Berry reports received honoraria from RAMPS, the NYC chapter of the AAPM. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
(Copyright © 2024 American Society for Radiation Oncology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)