Methodology for commissioning a brachytherapy treatment planning system in the era of 3D planning

To describe the steps undertaken to commission a 3D high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatment planning system (TPS). Emphasis was placed on validating previously published recommendations, in addition to checking 3D parameters such as treatment optimization and dose volume histogram (DVH) analysis. Commissioning was performed of the brachytherapy module of the Nucletron Oncentra MasterPlan treatment planning system (version 3.2). Commissioning test results were compared to an independent external beam TPS (Varian Eclipse v 8.6) and the previously commissioned Nucletron Plato (v 14.3.7) brachytherapy treatment planning system, with point doses also independently verified using the brachytherapy module in RadCalc (v 6.0) independent point dose calculation software. Tests were divided into eight categories: (i) Image import accuracy, (ii) Reconstruction accuracy, (iii) Source configuration data check, (iv) Dose calculation accuracy, (v) Treatment optimization validation, (vi) DVH reproducibility, (vii) Treatment export check and (viii) Printout consistency. Point dose agreement between Oncentra, Plato and RadCalc was better than 5% with source data and dose calculation protocols following the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) guidelines. Testing of image accuracy (import and reconstruction), along with validation of automated treatment optimization and DVH analysis generated a more comprehensive set of testing procedures than previously listed in published recommendations.