Although recommended, access to 3D planning for all breast patients is limited in some countries. This is mainly due to the shortage of CT scanners dedicated to radiotherapy treatment planning. Various other contouring methods have been used although these are usually time consuming and take up valuable simulator time. PlanRT®, an optional module to AlignRT® allows a full set of 3D contours to be extracted from the 3D surface image within seconds.

Simulation
The patient is positioned on the simulator in the correct position. The radiotherapist can then place marks on the patient's skin to indicate where the field borders should be. The radiographer or therapist can then determine the centres of the medial and lateral borders. The patient should then be aligned so that the lasers pass through these points. AlignRT® is then used in order to acquire a 3D surface of the patient at this point. PlanRT® can then be used to extract any number of contours and at any separation with just a couple of clicks of the mouse. The user may then select to produce a 3D model of the lung. PlanRT® outputs a geometric plan and a film is taken. The user then enters five lung heights along the field and the model is computed. All of this can then be exported as a DICOM RT struct and thus may be interfaced directly to a third party treatment planning system.

Treatment
Contour changes can be assessed at any stage during treatment and extracted contours exported to the planning system.

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