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Description
Objective While the first clinical upright radiotherapy systems have been installed, their availability remains limited, and further research is required to explore potential benefits and limitations of this technique. This work presents the development of a custom research platform for upright radiotherapy, including both a rotation platform and a dedicated 3D Slicer extension. The platform enables anthropomorphic phantom-based research on conventional linear accelerators equipped with on-board imaging systems or in existing fixed-beam particle therapy rooms.
Materials and Methods The motion platform was designed using Inventor 2024 (Autodesk, CA, USA) and constructed from an aluminum turntable bearing, a 3D-printed ABS frame and gears. The platform operates via a belt-driven mechanism with a gear ratio of 7.75. The control software was developed in C++, featuring a Qt-based (Qt Group, Espoo, Finland) graphical user interface that communicates wirelessly with the motion platform. Additionally, a custom, modular 3D Slicer (www.slicer.org) extension was developed in Python to facilitate image processing, registration and export.
Results The rotation platform allowed sub-degree angular resolution, enabling continuous rotation in either direction or precise targeting of angular positions. The platform supports loads of up to 40 kg, allowing the movement of anthropomorphic phantoms. The graphical user interface calculates the required couch displacements to reposition the target at the isocenter for each potential beam sequence, thereby allowing isocentric treatments with multiple beam angles. Combined with the custom 3D Slicer module, the platform enables the recreation of the entire upright radiotherapy workflow. The module includes the transformation and preprocessing of daily upright images, image registration and validation tools as well as the preparation of processed data for DICOM export, ensuring compatibility with conventional treatment planning systems.
Conclusion A rotation platform designed to enable phantom studies for upright radiotherapy was developed alongside a modular 3D Slicer extension. The custom hardware and modular software are intended to facilitate research in upright radiotherapy.