Automatic genetic planning for Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy: a large multi-centre validation for prostate cancer

Abstract Purpose The first clinical genetic autoplanning algorithm (Genetic Planning Solution, GPS) was validated in ten radiotherapy centres for prostate cancer VMAT by comparison with manual planning (Manual). Methods Although there were large differences among centres in planning protocol, GPS was tuned with the data of a single centre and then applied everywhere without any centre-specific fine-tuning. For each centre, ten Manual plans were compared with autoGPS plans, considering dosimetric plan parameters and the Clinical Blind Score (CBS) resulting from blind clinician plan comparisons. AutoGPS plans were used as is, i.e. there was no patient-specific fine-tuning. Results For nine centres, all ten plans were clinically acceptable. In the remaining centre, only one plan was acceptable. For the 91% acceptable plans, differences between Manual and AutoGPS in target coverage were negligible. OAR doses were significantly lower in AutoGPS plans (p  Conclusion A novel, clinically applied genetic autoplanning algorithm was validated in 10 centres for in total 100 prostate cancer patients. High quality plans could be generated at different centres without centre-specific algorithm tuning.