Medical Physics Department, Veneto Institute of Oncology IOV-IRCCS, Padua, Italy.
Med Phys. 2024 Nov;51(11):8602-8612. doi: 10.1002/mp.17365. Epub 2024 Aug 26.
Complexity metrics are mathematical quantities designed to quantify aspects of radiotherapy treatment plans that may affect both their deliverability and dosimetric accuracy. Despite numerous studies investigating their utility, there remains a notable absence of shared tools for their extraction.
This study introduces UCoMX (Universal Complexity Metrics Extractor), a software package designed for the extraction of complexity metrics from the DICOM-RT plan files of radiotherapy treatments.
UCoMX is developed around two extraction engines: VCoMX (VMAT Complexity Metrics Extractor) for VMAT/IMRT plans, and TCoMX (Tomotherapy Complexity Metrics Extractor) tailored for Helical Tomotherapy plans. The software, built using Matlab, is freely available in both Matlab-based and stand-alone versions. More than 90 complexity metrics, drawn from relevant literature, are implemented in the package: 43 for VMAT/IMRT and 51 for Helical Tomotherapy.
The package is designed to read DICOM-RT plan files generated by most commercially available Treatment Planning Systems (TPSs), across various treatment units. A reference dataset containing VMAT, IMRT, and Helical Tomotherapy plans is provided to serve as a reference for comparing UCoMX with other in-house systems available at other centers.
UCoMX offers a straightforward solution for extracting complexity metrics from radiotherapy plans. Its versatility is enhanced through different versions, including Matlab-based and stand-alone, and its compatibility with a wide range of commercially available TPSs and treatment units. UCoMX presents a free, user-friendly tool empowering researchers to compute the complexity of treatment plans efficiently.
复杂性指标是为量化可能影响放射治疗计划可交付性和剂量准确性的方面而设计的数学量。尽管有许多研究调查了它们的实用性，但仍然缺乏用于提取它们的共享工具。
本研究介绍了 UCoMX（通用复杂性指标提取器），这是一个用于从放射治疗的 DICOM-RT 计划文件中提取复杂性指标的软件包。
UCoMX 围绕两个提取引擎构建：VCoMX（VMAT 复杂性指标提取器）用于 VMAT/IMRT 计划，以及 TCoMX（螺旋断层放疗复杂性指标提取器）专门用于螺旋断层放疗计划。该软件使用 Matlab 构建，提供了基于 Matlab 的和独立版本。该软件包中实现了 90 多个复杂性指标，这些指标来自相关文献：43 个用于 VMAT/IMRT，51 个用于螺旋断层放疗。
该软件包旨在读取由大多数市售治疗计划系统（TPS）生成的 DICOM-RT 计划文件，涵盖了各种治疗单位。提供了一个参考数据集，其中包含 VMAT、IMRT 和螺旋断层放疗计划，作为与其他中心使用的其他内部系统进行比较的参考。
UCoMX 为从放射治疗计划中提取复杂性指标提供了一个简单的解决方案。它的多功能性通过不同的版本得到增强，包括基于 Matlab 的和独立版本，以及与广泛的市售 TPS 和治疗单位的兼容性。UCoMX 提供了一个免费的、用户友好的工具，使研究人员能够高效地计算治疗计划的复杂性。
