Bilateral metallic hip implants: Are avoidance sectors necessary for pelvic VMAT treatments?

Purpose: Metallic hip implants (MHI) are common in elderly patients. For pelvic cancers radiotherapy, conventional approaches consist of MHI avoidance during treatment planning, which leads, especially in case of bilateral MHI, to a decreased quality or increased complexity of the treatment plan. The aim of this study is to investigate the necessity of using avoidance sectors (AvSe) using a 2-arcs coplanar pelvic volumetric modulated arc-therapy (VMAT) planning.

Urethra-Sparing Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer: Quality Assurance of a Randomized Phase 2 Trial.

Purpose: To present the radiation therapy quality assurance results from a prospective multicenter phase 2 randomized trial of short versus protracted urethra-sparing stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for localized prostate cancer.

Methods And Materials: Between 2012 and 2015, 165 patients with prostate cancer from 9 centers were randomized and treated with SBRT delivered either every other day (arm A, n = 82) or once a week (arm B, n = 83); 36.25 Gy in 5 fractions were prescribed to the prostate with (n = 92) or without (n = 73) inclusion of the seminal vesicles (SV), and the urethra planning-risk volume received 32.

3D printing for dosimetric optimization and quality assurance in small animal irradiations using megavoltage X-rays.

Purpose: New therapeutic options in radiotherapy (RT) are often explored in preclinical in-vivo studies using small animals. We report here on the feasibility of modern megavoltage (MV) linear accelerator (LINAC)-based RT for small animals using easy-to-use consumer 3D printing technology for dosimetric optimization and quality assurance (QA).

Methods: In this study we aimed to deliver 5×2Gy to the half-brain of a rat using a 4MV direct hemi-field X-ray beam.

Clinical experience with lung-specific electromagnetic transponders for real-time tumor tracking in lung stereotactic body radiotherapy.

Background And Purposes: Motion management is crucial for optimal stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) of moving targets. We aimed to describe our clinical experience with real-time tracking of lung-specific electromagnetic transponders (EMTs) for SBRT of early stage non-small cell lung cancer in free-breathing (FB) or deep inspiration breath-hold (DIBH).

Material And Methods: Seven patients were implanted with EMTs.

Dose optimization and endorectal balloon for internal pudendal arteries sparing in prostate SBRT.

Purpose: Vessel-sparing radiotherapy has shown promising results in preserving erectile function (EF). Using an endorectal balloon (ERB) may help to reduce the dose to the internal pudendal arteries (IPA) by pushing the prostate forward. We tested this hypothesis and evaluated the limits of IPA dose optimization in prostate cancer patients simulated with and without ERB.