Comparative Planning
While proton beam therapy (PBT) is not yet available in Australia, Australian patients wishing to access treatment can apply for Federal Government funding through the Medical Treatment Overseas Program (MTOP).
The Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy and Research (ABCPTR) provides a bulk-billed national service to generate PBT plans and perform plan comparisons between the PBT plan and XRT plan supplied by the referring institution.
This plan comparison can inform the referring Radiation Oncologist (RO) of the potential benefits, or otherwise of PBT for that individual patient.
The process outlined in the comparative planning information sheet has been designed based on the draft Australian proton-photon planning consensus guidelines, a collaboration between the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists – RANZCR, Australasian College of Physical Scientists & Engineers in Medicine -ACPSEM and the Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy – ASMIRT.
Referring a patient to the Comparative Planning Service
Comparative PBT treatment plans can be requested by a referring Radiation Oncologist.
To initiate the process 🔗 https://redcap.sahmri.com/surveys/?s=LDMMAKCF4W3MDFT4
The referring institution is responsible for generating the XRT treatment plan with the intention that this plan can be used to deliver treatment if PBT is deemed inappropriate for the patient.
DICOM File Transfer
A step by step user guide for transferring DICOM plan and dose files via liquidFiles can be found here ➡️ Comparative Planning LiquidFiles