EURO 2025 Leeds
Abstract Submission

1546. Distributionally Robust Chance Constraints for VMAT Treatment Planning

Invited abstract in session WA-11: Resource and treatment planning, stream OR in Healthcare (ORAHS).

Wednesday, 8:30-10:00
Room: Clarendon SR 1.03

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Houra Mahmoudzadeh
Department of Management Sciences, University of Waterloo
2. Stoyan Hristov
University of Waterloo
3. Johnson Darko
Grand River Regional Cancer Centre
4. Ernest Osei
Grand River Regional Cancer Centre

Abstract

Radiation therapy (RT) seeks to irradiate a cancerous tumour while minimizing damage to the nearby organs at risk (OARs). Throughout a treatment session, a patient's geometry might change unpredictably, which can degrade the treatment quality. Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) is a modern form of RT in which the beam follows a path around the patient while continuously delivering radiation. Despite better OAR sparing and shorter treatment times, VMAT planning results in a large-scale nonlinear mixed integer program (NLMIP) that becomes even more complex when geometric uncertainty is incorporated. We propose a distributionally robust chance constraints VMAT model and a heuristic solution scheme that outputs near-optimal treatment plans which are robust to uncertainty in tumour position. Finally, we compare the robustness of nominal, robust, and distributionally robust plans and discuss tradeoffs.

Keywords

Status: accepted


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