Radiobiology
International Radiobiology Course
Radiobiology Software
BIOPLAN
BIOPLAN (BIOlogical evaluation of treatment PLANs) is PC-based user-friendly software for the (radio)biological evaluation of radiotherapy treatment plans. The input data are DVHs in a number of different formats (from simple ASCII files, with differential or cumulative DVHs, to manufacturer-specific formats provided by commercial TP systems). BIOPLAN provides a variety of tools such as NTCP (using different models) and TCP (Marsden model) calculations, the DeltaTCP method, DVH subtraction, plots of NTCP/TCP as a function of prescription dose, individualised dose prescription, Equivalent Uniform Dose calculations (EUD), tumour and OAR dose statistics, etc. The user can access a library of published NTCP model parameters. However, these can also be customised by the user, thus making BIOPLAN useful in testing the parametric sensitivity of the biological models in particular cases.
A full description of the software and associated biological models is given in Sanchez-Nieto B. and Nahum A. E., BIOPLAN: software for the biological evaluation of radiotherapy treatment plans Medical Dosimetry 25 71-76 2000.
For more information about BIOPLAN, send Professor Alan E. Nahum an e-mail: or download BIOPLAN.
LQ Survivor
LQ Survivor (Linear Quadratic) illustrates the LQ model for radiation induced cell killing and is at the core of current radiotherapy practice of fractionating treatments.
Usually used as a basis for mechanistic modelling of tumour control probability, the LQ model expresses the proportion of surviving cells irradiated either in a fractionated or non-fractionated way. Less often, it is used to model normal tissue damage and complication risks.
LQ Survivor can display surviving fraction vs. dose curves to give a visual illustration of what is happening at the cellular level when using radiotherapy for treating cancer.
It can also add to this simple model the effects of accelerated repopulation and/or sub-lethal damage repair for long fraction delivery.
The user can create cell lines, define radiobiological parameters for them and observe the effect of changing their values on the survival curves.
This project is still at the early stages of its development. In the future it will include cell phase and hypoxia reshuffling after fraction delivery and mixed cell populations curves.
This program is first of all an educational tool to familiarise clinicians with the linear quadratic model.
To download Survivor and the exercise sheet click here.