Can the Student Outperform the Master? A Plan Comparison Between Pinnacle Auto-Planning and Eclipse knowledge-Based RapidPlan Following a Prostate-Bed Plan Competition.

Purpose: Pinnacle Auto-Planning and Eclipse RapidPlan are 2 major commercial automated planning engines that are fundamentally different: Auto-Planning mimics real planners in the iterative optimization, while RapidPlan generates static dose objectives from estimations predicted based on a prior knowledge base. This study objectively compared their performances on intensity-modulated radiotherapy planning for prostate fossa and lymphatics adopting the plan quality metric used in the 2011 American Association of Medical Dosimetrists Plan Challenge.

Methods: All plans used an identical intensity-modulated radiotherapy beam setup and a simultaneous integrated boost prescription (68 Gy/56 Gy to prostate fossa/lymphatics).