Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41065312›Full record

ArticleJournal of applied clinical medical physics2025

RTPhy-ChatBot: A RAG-Based intelligent assistant for radiotherapy physics using LLaMA3 and AAPM reports.

Shuoyang Wei, Ankang Hu, Zhiqun Wang, Xiangyin Meng, Lang Yu, Bo Yang, Jie Qiu

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of applied clinical medical physics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Shuoyang WeiDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5530-2569
Ankang HuDepartment of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Zhiqun WangDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0545-0229
Xiangyin MengDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8415-7974
Lang YuDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China.
Bo YangDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China.
Jie QiuDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China.

Funding

National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding 2022-PUMCH-B-116National Key R&D Program of China, Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China 2022YFC2404606
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMedical physics plays a crucial role in radiotherapy, with ongoing technological advancements aimed at improving treatment outcomes. However, the rapid pace of innovation presents challenges for medical physicists, who must continuously acquire and integrate complex information for effective decision-making and communication. PURPOSE: To support efficient knowledge acquisition, we developed RTPhy-ChatBot, an intelligent assistant tailored to radiotherapy physics. The objective was to create a reliable and precise tool to assist medical physicists in their daily work.

methodsThe knowledge base for RTPhy-ChatBot was constructed from publications by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), which were converted into markdown format, segmented, and embedded using the bge-base-en-v1.5 model. RTPhy-ChatBot employed the Meta-LLaMA3-8B-Instruct model for response generation. We compared its performance with several commercial large language models (LLMs) across 20 template questions and evaluated the impact of zero-shot chain-of-thought (CoT) reasoning. In addition to expert scoring by senior medical physicists, we conducted Rouge score analysis against synthesized reference answers.

resultsRTPhy-ChatBot demonstrated strong performance in answering radiotherapy physics questions. Across 20 questions, it achieved an average score of 4.0 ± 0.9, compared to 3.9 ± 1.1 for Gemini-2.0-Flash, 4.0 ± 1.4 for GPT-4o, and 3.8 ± 1.2 for Moonshot-v1. It excelled in questions involving specific quality assurance standards. Rouge analysis yielded scores of 0.5127 (Rouge-1), 0.2119 (Rouge-2), and 0.2748 (Rouge-L), closely matching commercial LLMs.

conclusionsRTPhy-ChatBot proved to be an effective intelligent assistant for radiotherapy physics, delivering accurate, referenced responses grounded in AAPM publications. Despite lacking online access, it matched or exceeded the performance of commercial LLMs in domain-specific tasks. This pilot study highlights the potential of domain-specific assistants in supporting clinical workflows.

Indexed as

Health PhysicsKnowledge BasesNeoplasmsRadiotherapyRadiotherapy Planning, Computer-AssistedSoftwareGenerative Artificial IntelligenceHumansRadiotherapy Dosagelarge language modelradiotherapy physicsretrieval‐augmented generation

Identifiers

PMID41065312
PMCPMC12509246

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.