Commissioning of a new planning system involves extensive data acquisition which can be onerous involving significant clinic downtime. This could be circumvented by extracting data from existing treatment planning system (TPS) to speed up the process.

In this study, commissioning beam data was obtained from a clinically commissioned TPS (Pinnacle™) using Matlab™ generated Pinnacle™ executable scripts to commission an independent 3D dose verification TPS (Eclipse™). Profiles and output factors for commissioning as required by Eclipse™ were computed on a 50 × 50 × 50 cm3 water phantom at a dose grid resolution of 2 mm3. Verification doses were computed and compared to clinical TPS dose profiles based on TG-106 guidelines. Standard patient plans from Pinnacle™ including intensity modulated radiation therapy and volumetric modulated arc therapy were re-computed on Eclipse™ TPS while maintaining the same monitor units. Computed dose was exported back to Pinnacle for comparison with the original plans. This methodology enabled us to alleviate all ambiguities that arise in such studies.

Profile analysis using in-house software showed that for all field sizes including small multi-leaf collimator-generated fields, >95% of infield and penumbra data points of Eclipse™ match Pinnacle™ generated and measured profiles with 2%/2 mm gamma criteria. Excellent agreement was observed in the penumbra regions, with >95% of the data points passing distance to agreement criteria for complex C-shaped and S-shaped profiles. Dose volume histograms and isodose lines of patient plans agreed well to within a 0·5% for target coverage.

Migration of TPS is possible without compromising accuracy or enduring the cumbersome measurement of commissioning data. Economising time for commissioning such a verification system or for migration of TPS can add great QA value and minimise downtime.