Bi-level Multi-criteria Optimization for Risk-informed Radiotherapy

Abstract

In radiation therapy (RT) treatment planning, multi-criteria optimization (MCO) supports efficient plan selection but is usually solved for population-based dosimetric criteria and ignores patient-specific biological risk, potentially compromising outcomes in high-risk patients. We propose risk-guided MCO, a one-shot method that embeds a clinical risk model into conventional MCO, enabling interactive navigation between dosimetric and biological endpoints. The proposed algorithm uses a special order relation to fuse the classical MCO sandwiching algorithm with bi-level optimization, restricting the Pareto set to plans that achieve improvement in the secondary risk objective for user-defined, acceptable loss in primary clinical objectives. Thus, risk-guided MCO generates risk-optimized counterparts of clinical plans in a single run rather than by sequential or lexicographic planning. To assess the performance, we retrospectively analyzed 19 lung cancer patients treated with RT. The endpoint was the risk of grade 2+ radiation pneumonitis (RP), modeled using bootstrapped stepwise logistics regression with interaction terms, including baseline lung function, smoking history, and dosimetric factors. The risk-guided plans yielded a mean reduction of 8.0% in total lung V20 and 9.5% in right lung V5, translating into an average RP risk reduction of 7.7% (range=0.3%-20.1%), with small changes in target coverage (mean -1.2 D98[%] for CTV) and modest increase in heart dose (mean +1.74 Gy). This study presents the first proof-of-concept for integrating biological risk models directly within multi-criteria RT planning, enabling an interactive balance between established population-wide dose protocols and individualized outcome prediction. Our results demonstrate that the risk-informed MCO can reduce the risk of RP while maintaining target coverage.