ProKnow Plan Study Updates

Hello, friends of ProKnow. We have been busy lately with many cool happenings in ProKnow world, but we realized it was a good time to give a host of updates from the realm of ProKnow Plan Studies.

So without further ado …

Two “Live” International Studies: SBRT Pancreas for TROG and the RSS

An interesting pair of plan studies are now open for submission: (1) 2019 TROG Plan Study: SBRT Pancreas and (2) 2019 RSS Plan Study: SBRT Pancreas

The TROG and RSS studies use the same patient dataset (contoured from a digitally-created average from high-quality 4D CT), but each is based on a different prescription and protocol: (1) MASTERPLAN (40 Gy in 5 fractions) for the TROG study and (2) Alliance (33 Gy in 5 fractions) for the RSS study.

This one dataset / dual scoring pair adds exciting new discussion points around ProKnow plan studies, such as, How do we design protocols in the first place? How different are they, and why are they different? What are the pros and cons of different prescription doses, and how do we fairly compare them? How is each proven? Can we evolve to one day having international, consensus protocols based on clinical outcomes studies?

The study results will be first presented at the annual meetings of both organizations in March 2019, after which the ProKnow interactive population results will be turned “on” for all to peruse.

We hope you can find time to submit a plan for each protocol!

TROG Clinical Team to Present at ESTRO 38 Based on SRS Brain Study

Congratulations to the clinicians and scientists from Australia and New Zealand who made up the planning team for the 2018 SRS Brain plan study. This team will have two oral presentations at ESTRO 38 (April 26-30, Milan, Italy) based on the findings of this study. As this meeting draws nearer and the final program is released, look for the talks entitled, “Credentialing of spine stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy in a multi-centre trial” and “SRS plan quality with variation in modality: Results of an international planning competition.”

ViewRay Users’ Meeting

Congratulations to ViewRay and the ViewRay users around the world, who just finished an SBRT plan study for their February 2019 users’ meeting. Despite being a relatively new — but fast-growing — community, there was a healthy participation level. The feedback relayed to us was that the study (1) was both useful and appreciated at this well-attended meeting and (2) would become a recurring feature of ViewRay users’ meetings.

For those of you who are registered to the ViewRay private ProKnow organization, the interactive results are now active on the “Population Results” tab, and the meeting’s results presentation has been posted on the “Learn” tab for this study.

Another Study in the Pipeline

A team from the University of Calgary and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre, led by Michael Roumeliotis, PhD, MCCPM, is currently designing a bilateral breast plan study as the pilot study of a larger project. The principal goal is to rethink how treatment plan quality studies can be optimized by combining the study of both multi- and single-institution results. Stay tuned for information about this study and the roll-out to participating regions and sites.

Update on the 2019 AAMD Plan Study

Unfortunately, the authors of the 2019 AAMD Plan Study had to withdraw their submitted abstract due to unforeseen events, so there will not be a plan study for the 2019 AAMD meeting. This will break a string of about 10 years in a row with a plan challenge/plan study as part of the annual AAMD meeting, but it sure was a good run! Hopefully, a clinical team will want to plan and present a study for the 2020 meeting and start a new streak.

Planning for the 2019 World Championships

Last but not least, we wanted to announce that yes! we will be planning and hosting another “World Championships of Treatment Planning” this year, and yes! it will be even better than our inaugural event in 2018.

The event will again run live, and probably with different time options to better support all global time zones. The multimedia awards announcement will be first presented at the ASTRO 2019 meeting (September 15-18, Chicago, IL) and published to the world on the web internationally thereafter.

We will have a series of “call-in” web meetings to get your feedback on ideas for datasets, protocols, strategies, and rules so that we can continually improve the fun and usefulness of this event. Stay tuned for more details, and start honing those skills by participating in any of the current or past plan study exercises hosted at ProKnow’s quality systems site.