Development of explanatory movies for the delineation of new organs at risk in neuro-oncology.

Ten new organs at risk (OARs) were recently introduced in the updated European Particle Therapy Network neurological contouring atlas. Despite the use of the illustrated atlas and descriptive text, interindividual contouring variations may persist. To further facilitate the contouring of these OARs, educational films were developed and published on www.

Pre-treatment visualization of predicted radiation-induced acute alopecia in brain tumour patients.

Background And Purpose: Temporary alopecia is a common side-effect in brain tumour patients receiving cranial radiotherapy with a significant psychological burden for the affected patient. The purpose of this study was to generate a method in our treatment planning system (TPS) to visualize the expected radiation-induced alopecia 4 weeks after treatment, in order to inform the patients thereupon before the start of radiotherapy.

Material And Methods: A pilot study was conducted in ten patients receiving hypo- (HF) or conventionally fractionated (CF) photon beam Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) for an intracranial lesion.

The ROCOCO performance scoring system translates dosimetric differences into clinically relevant endpoints: Comparing IMPT to VMAT in an example pilocytic astrocytoma dataset.

Background And Purpose: Proton therapy is expected to outperform photon-based treatment regarding organs at risk (OAR) sparing but to date there is no method to practically measure clinical benefit. Here, we introduce the novel ROCOCO Performance Scoring System (RPSS) translating dose differences into clinically relevant endpoints and apply this to a treatment plan comparison of volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) and intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) in 20 pilocytic astrocytoma patients.

Material And Methods: The RPSS was developed on the basis of expert-based weighting factors and toxicity scores per OAR.

Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Extracranial Oligometastatic Non-small-cell Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review.

Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) has emerged as a treatment modality for selected patients with oligometastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The objectives of this systematic review were to explore the benefits and risks of SBRT for extracranial oligometastatic NSCLC. The MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and CENTRAL databases were searched for relevant articles from January 1, 2000 to July 23, 2019.

The posterior cerebellum, a new organ at risk?

Eekers et al. have recently proposed a neuro-oncology atlas, which was co-authored by most centers associated in the European Proton Therapy Network (EPTN; Figure 1). With the introduction of new treatment techniques, such as integrated magnetic resonance imaging and linear accelerators (MR-linac) or particle therapy, the prediction of clinical efficacy of these more costly treatment modalities becomes more relevant.

The EPTN consensus-based atlas for CT- and MR-based contouring in neuro-oncology.

Purpose: To create a digital, online atlas for organs at risk (OAR) delineation in neuro-oncology based on high-quality computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging.

Methods: CT and 3 Tesla (3T) MR images (slice thickness 1 mm with intravenous contrast agent) were obtained from the same patient and subsequently fused. In addition, a 7T MR without intravenous contrast agent was obtained from a healthy volunteer.