Reflections on the current status of commercial automated segmentation systems in clinical practice

Automatic segmentation systems have recently become commercially available and are beginning to be adopted in clinical practice. They have the potential to save time in contouring of normal tissues required for intensity modulated radiation therapy and volumetric modulated arc radiation therapy treatment planning. This editorial introduces the methods of automatic segmentation and briefly discusses their limitations, how they are evaluated and implemented in clinical practice and whether the benefit of these systems is worth the cost of purchase and implementation.