Prowess Panther DAO IMRT takes IMRT to the next level with Direct Aperture Optimization (DAO). Powered by a new 3D convolution/superposition dose calculation engine, which includes all the delivery constraints within the optimization process, Prowess Panther DAO IMRT is the only true WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) inverse planning system on the market, and the first and only commercial treatment planning system to incorporate DAO.
SIMPLIFIED IMRT
Typically, traditional IMRT techniques use a two-step approach to arrive at a final treatment plan. First, a fluence map is optimized from each beam direction (optimization). Then, the set of aperture shapes that most closely reproduces each fluence map (leaf sequencing) is determined. This approach is flawed because the delivery constraints are not enforced during the optimization; and the number of segments is typically 2-3 time the number of intensity levels.
BENEFITS OF PROWESS DAO IMRT
Up to 65% Reduction in
Segments required to deliver treatment.
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Less wear-and-tear on equipment.
Lower equipment maintenance costs.
Longer equipment life span.
Simplified Quality Assurance.
Up to 60% Reduction in Monitor
Units (MUs) required to deliver treatment.
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Reduced total delivery dose.
Fewer radiation protection concerns.
Less time required to deliver treatment.
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Improved patient comfort.
More accurate delivery of dose.
Ability to treat more patients in the same amount of time
Specifications
Imaging
Image Import
DICOM 3.0 and DICOM RT compatible, ATC compliant.
Automatic CT/MR/PET image data acquisition in DICOM 3.0 format.
Supports images with uniform and non-uniform spacing.
Supports scanner and digitizer interface with image rescaling ability. Scanned images can be rotated in 90-degree increments, or flipped 180-degrees.
Image Fusion
Support for CT, MRI, PET, SPECT images in DICOM 3.0 format
Automatic and Manual Image Fusion methods supported
Numerical 'fit' suggests the accuracy in the image registration
Up to ten fiducial markers can be used for registration on either of the image series
Advanced automatic and manual comprehensive contouring tools
Easy to use editing and correction tools
Undo, Redo contouring utility
Multiple Boolean Operators
Multiple 3D image set support
Asymmetric Margins
Easy checking tools including Aperture, Checkerboard and transparency
Individual window width and level adjustments for the master, slave series.
Master/Slave series can be changed anytime before contouring from the Image Fusion window
Contours can be drawn on either the master or slave image series
Contouring
Contouring Features
Support up to 60 volumes
Contouring can be done in Full Screen mode
Advanced Automatic and Manual comprehensive contouring tools
Multi-slice auto contouring for external and differentiated internal contours
Image crop tool allows volumes to be contoured with automatic tools
Manual contouring tools via point-by-point and continuous modes
Can overlay contours in the previous/next slices to facilitate manual contouring
Easy to use editing, correction tools. Add/delete/replace/move/paint/copy/scale using simple mouse operations.
Supports interpolation of the contours in the intermediate slices
Undo, Redo contouring tool support
Powerful Boolean Operators that can generate new contours from the existing ones using Intersection, Difference and Union logics.
Supports multiple Boolean operations
Asymmetric Margins with organ avoid feature
Zoom and pan controls
Contours can be drawn with a digitizer
Multiple 3D image set support
User chosen density values can be assigned to a given transverse image with mouse operations. Can also fill any contoured organ with a chosen density value.
Density values are displayed in the status bar when moving the mouse over the CT images.
User can de-select any selected tool (Paint brush, zoom in/out, etc.) by pressing the ESC key.
Scroll through non-transverse (sagittal, coronal) slices.
Easy cleanup of small erroneous contours created by automatic contouring tool.
Volume decimation allows users to delete and modify contours on a few slices; the rest can then be interpolated.
Both calculation points and fiducial markers can be visualized in the beam's eye view and moved in any of the views.
Planning
Plan Manager
Select, Copy, Delete, and Add plans.
Plan type: External, Brachytherapy, Composite, and Irregular.
Plan Template Manager
Any plan can be exported as a template that can be used for future planning.
Some beam parameters can be edited during creation of a template or when imported.
New beams can be added or existing ones deleted in the plan template manager window.
Plan template allows the user to set the Isocenter of the beams to the Patient Origin, Center of Extents, Center of Mass, Cross Section of Markers, and Center of Markers.
Beam Setup
Beams can be added, edited, or deleted with quick, easy mouse operations.
Opposing beam creation (Copy Invert Beam).
MLC, Block shapes associated with the opposing beam are automatically inverted with one mouse click.
Beam summary can be displayed and updated in real time.
Display of current or all beams can be turned on or off.
All the parameters of the beams are available in the beam summary to view or quickly edit.
MUs are displayed for the calculated beams in the beam summary.
Support for hot-keys such as add, copy and delete beams.
Unlimited number of beams.
Real-time weighting and normalization
Other
Secured plan acceptance
Patient and planning data is file/folder based and can be sent back and forth via network or internet to satellite sites or laptops.
Overlap of the target volume with other volumes can be calculated and displayed in both cm3 and percentage of target volume.
Rotational beams and asymmetrical fields supported.
Visualization Tools
User-friendly graphical user interface, with a user-controlled screen layout displaying any of the four of the following views simultaneously
Room's Eye View
Transverse View
Coronal Reconstruction View
Sagittal Reconstruction View
Beam's Eye View (BEV)
Thumbnail (complete transverse image set)
3D View
Common Tools
Any of the views can be displayed in the main window and can be zoomed to Full Screen.
Transverse images can be seen consecutively as a movie loop.
Any contour can be displayed or turned off
Contours can be viewed in either of the following display modes : Wireframe, Fill, Transparent or Solid
Fiducial markers and calculation points can be viewed or turned off
Zoom in and out and view in full screen
Isocenter, patient origin, and slice reconstruction origin can be turned on or off
Customizable print and plot settings
Beam's Eye View (BEV)
Anatomical organs can be seen as wire frame or turned off.
Digitally Reconstructed Radiograph (DRR)
DRR display can be set to dynamic or user-initiated for any change in the beam parameters
User selectable resolution : 128, 256, 512
Two interpolation options : Nearest Neighbor, Trilinear
Option to see any of the contoured organs in wire frame mode overlaid on the DRR
Window width and level adjustments for the DRR display
Advanced DRR control settings including :
Film size (square)
Ray Trace Step size
Source to Film Distance
Bone Threshold
Metal Threshold
Water Ratio
Bone Ratio
Metal Ratio
Gamma Factor
Option to limit DRR to external volume
Anatomical organs can be seen as wire frame or turned off
Personal settings can be saved customizing use for individual preferences as 'DRR template/library files'
Room's Eye View (REV)
In REV, the user can easily visualize the actual treatment geometry
Relative positioning of the patient with respect to the treatment unit in three dimensions can be viewed
Treatment unit can be viewed in solid or wireframe displays or can be turned off
Display is real time and instantly reflects any changes in the machine parameters
3D view can be rotated or panned by simple mouse operations
Orientation glyph displays the current orientation of the patient. It can be turned on or off
Dose surface for any specified value can be viewed or turned off
3D View can be coupled with the reconstructed CT image data in any plane. The planar selection is very efficient through simple mouse/keyboard operations.
Color wash and Isofill
Support for advanced color wash feature
Advanced color wash can be turned on or off
The lowest dose value is in deep blue and the highest in dark red
Dose values assigned to a specific color are user selectable (in adsolute dose or relative)
Selectable in either absolute dose values or relative
Option to have the Isodose curves over laid on the color wash
System supports color Isofill option where the dose between intermediate dose values can be filled with one color
Any two calculated plans can be compared side by side
Plans can be selected from a drop down list for comparison
Comparison can be in transverse, sagittal, coronal, 3D, REV, BEV, color wash or Isofill.
Both transverse planes can be simultaneously navigated through key board operation.
Dose Calculation
Dose Calculation Features
Supports two dose calculation algorithms
Fast Photon
Collapsed Cone convolution with or without heterogeneity correction
Dose display can be in absolute units or relative.
Non-coplanar beam calculations supported
Ray tracing to build effective depth tables
Calculation of output for Monitor Units
Dose grid can be overlaid on transverse sections
User defined dose grid. Its size can be increased or decreased by click and drag mouse operation
Multiple beam weight options: Isocenter, Dmax and MU. Support for Individual fractions for each beam.
Multiple normalization options: Un-Normalized, Isocenter, Max dose, Isodose
Dose can be prescribed to any user specified Isodose line
Points of interest can be placed with mouse operation or by entering co-ordinates and are reported in the dose summary print outs
User-defined machine and energy parameters
User-editable gray scale for density calibration
Detailed Plot/Hardcopy Outputs
Graphical output for all display windows
Complete beam parameter descriptions
Selection of plan summary system reports
User-defined plot magnification factor
Detailed physics summary
Dose contribution from each beam is displayed in the calc point summary.
Dose Volume Histogram
Dose Volume Histogram (DVH) Feature
Supports Comprehensive DVH analysis
All important DVH information is represented in one single window that represents both graphically and statistically.
DVH graph in either Integral and Differential mode display
The background color for the DVH graph can be changed to white or black at any time
User can enter the DVH Prescription, Dose Plot Maximum and Dose level values or alter them graphically
Volumes can be included or excluded into the DVH graphical analysis by simply clicking them
DVH can be compared between two plans. All calculated plans are available in a dropdown list.
Minimum, maximum, mean, median, modal, and EUD data are available in the DVH table as the entered percent volume value
Displays the percent volume that receives the entered dose value or greater
Support for a grid background, relative values, mouse tool tip and printing of multiple dose levels.
Exporting
Exporting Features
DICOM RT export of the patient's contours, treatment plans, DRRs and dose information
File name can be automatically changed during DICOM RT export through RTP
Can interface directly with VARiS (Varian), LANTIS (Siemens) and IMPAC record and verify systems
Can export all beams from a plan to reference the same patient setup
Add Reference Dose Sequence to RT Plan
Export MU per fraction for all plans
Export the interpolated dose value at the Isocenter
DAO IMRT Features
DAO IMRT – Additional features
The delivery constraints on individual aperture shapes (formed either by MLC leaves or by movable Jaws) are directly taken into account into optimization process as well as the weights of the individual aperture shapes. There is no conversion from fluence maps to aperture shapes.
Simulated Annealing based optimization
Quick convergence ability of the algorithm reduces the time for optimization
3mm x 3mm x CT Slice Thickness Voxel Spacing
Optimization option is a license controlled module that opens up as an additional window in the Prowess Panther treatment planning system.
Single window interface displaying the following features
Interactive, Real time DVH graphs display.
Graphical User interface to set and alter constraint settings in real time
Real time objective function in graphical display
Equivalent Uniform Dose (EUD) representation
Instant classification of organs into any of the three categories
Target Volumes
Critical Volumes
Ignored Volumes
User could add and edit any of the following definitions for the constraints either via GUI or keyboard entry
Points Less Than
Points Greater Than
Points Between
Points Outside
DVH Below
DVH Above
EUD Less Than
EUD Greater Than
Individual weighting for each constraints
Graphs can be viewed in Black or White background option
Option to store current constraint set into library and retrieve for future usage
Optimization can be paused and resumed as needed
On the fly optimization – Change constraints and weighting without pausing the optimization.
Customizable Number of Segments per beam
Display of fluence maps for each selected segment of the beam in BEV
Tabular display of sequential fluences for the segments of each beam
MU Display for each of the segment in total or per fraction options
Ability to allow user to change the sequence of the segments in any of the beams
Brochure