# Knowledge-based and automated treatment planning

Source: https://onco.cc/technologies/knowledge-based-planning/  
OnCo record `knowledge-based-planning` (Technology). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Software that learns from hundreds of past plans what dose distribution is achievable for a new patient, and produces a plan in minutes that a planner would have taken hours to reach.

## Summary

Radiotherapy planning has been a manual optimisation by skilled dosimetrists, with quality varying between planners and centres; trial reviews repeatedly found plan quality affected outcomes. Knowledge-based planning models (RapidPlan and others) predict achievable dose-volume histograms from anatomy, and automated multi-criteria and AI planning generate plans directly. They raise the floor of plan quality, cut planning time from hours to minutes, and make daily adaptive replanning feasible. Human review remains essential, and models can inherit the habits of the plans they were trained on.

## Fields

- Kind: Technology
- Status: established
- Last checked: 2026-09-16
- Tags: radiation-wave1
- Principle: Statistical or deep-learning models map patient anatomy to achievable dose, driving automated optimisation toward consistently high-quality plans.
- Since: 2014
- Strengths: Consistent plan quality; Minutes instead of hours; Enables adaptive workflows
- Limitations: Inherits biases of the training plans; Still needs expert review; Commissioning per site and technique

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_treatment_planning

## Connected records

- fronts: [Radiation Therapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/radiation/)
- technologies: [Adaptive radiotherapy (online replanning)](https://onco.cc/technologies/adaptive-radiotherapy/), [AI auto-contouring and adaptive planning](https://onco.cc/technologies/auto-contouring-ai/), [Radiotherapy treatment planning and QA software](https://onco.cc/technologies/treatment-planning-systems/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/knowledge-based-planning.json