The pln struct
The pln struct holds the meta information about the radiation treatment plan in the following fields.
pln.radiationMode
Specifies the radiation modality. Can either be photons, protons, or carbon.
pln.machine
In order to load the appropriate base data, one can introduce the machine in which the treatment plan have incorporated and the code will look for the file under {pln.radiationMode}_{pln.machine}.mat. For example, setting pln.machine to 'Generic' for a photon treatment plan will load the already available photons_Generic.mat file.
pln.numOfFractions
Specifies the number of fractions. Note that this parameter only needs to be set for biological treatment planning for carbon ions, where the optimization process is based on the fraction dose and not based on the overall dose.
Starting from Version 3.0.0, the pln holds the meta information in two separate substructures, one for steering meta informations under pln.propStf and the other for optimization meta informations uder pln.propOpt. There is also the possibility to opt for a different resolution grid for dose calculation by introducing it under pln.propDoseCalc substructure.
pln.propStf.gantryAngles
Specifies the gantry angles as matlab vector according to the matRad coordinate system.
pln.propStf.couchAngles
Specifies the couch angles as matlab vector according to the matRad coordinate system.
pln.propStf.bixelWidth
Specifies the width (and height) of quadratic photon bixels (i.e. discrete fluence elements). For particles, this parameter specifies the lateral spot distance.
pln.propStf.numOfBeams
Specifies the number of beam directions. During the matRad script, this parameter is automatically determined.
pln.propStf.isocenter
Specifies the iso center of the treatment plan in voxel coordinates within the ct.cube. By default, the iso center is calculated as the center of gravity of all voxels belonging to structures that have been modeled as target volume in the cst cell.
pln.propOpt.bioOptimization
Specifies the type of biological optimization. none corresponds to a conventional optimization based on the physical dose. effect corresponds to an effect based optimization according to Wilkens & Oelfke. RBExD corresponds to an optimization of the RBE weighted dose according to Krämer & Scholz.
pln.propOpt.runDAO
Setting this value to true will enable Direct Aperture Optimization run allowing us to directly optimize aperture shapes and weights.
pln.propOpt.runSequencing
Setting this value to true will enable sequencing algorithms run.
