Development and Clinical Implementation of an Automated Virtual Integrative Planner for Radiation Therapy of Head and Neck Cancer.

Purpose: Head and neck (HN) radiation (RT) treatment planning is complex and resource intensive. Deviations and inconsistent plan quality significantly affect clinical outcomes. We sought to develop a novel automated virtual integrative (AVI) knowledge-based planning application to reduce planning time, increase consistency, and improve baseline quality.

The Special Medical Physics Consult Process for Reirradiation Patients.

Purpose: To present a systematic approach to the reirradiation special medical physics consult (ReRT-SMPC) process.

Materials And Methods: An in-house reirradiation committee of physicians and physicists was formed to develop a streamlined and well-documented approach to ReRT-SMPCs. Dosimetric goals and considerations for tissue repair were generated by the committee with input from the literature, clinical trial guidelines, and physician experience.

MRI to delineate the gross tumor volume of nasopharyngeal cancers: which sequences and planes should be used?

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been found to be better than computed tomography for defining the extent of primary gross tumor volume (GTV) in advanced nasopharyngeal cancer. It is routinely applied for target delineation in planning radiotherapy. However, the specific MRI sequences/planes that should be used are unknown.

Pattern of failure after high-dose thoracic radiation for non-small cell lung cancer: the University of Michigan experience.

Purpose: Our main purpose is to study the pattern of local failure for patients with non-small cell lung cancer treated with conformal therapy.

Methods: This study included patients who failed locally and a matched group without failures after 3D conformal radiation per a radiation dose-escalation trial. Radiation doses ranged from 65.