Purpose: Three-dimensional irradiation with a scanned carbon-ion beam has been performed from 2011 at the authors' facility. The authors have developed the rotating-gantry equipped with the scanning irradiation system. The number of combinations of beam properties to measure for the commissioning is more than 7200, i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNihon Hoshasen Gijutsu Gakkai Zasshi
March 2016
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate a post-analysis method for cumulative dose distribution in stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) using volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) .
Method: VMAT is capable of acquiring respiratory signals derived from projection images and machine parameters based on machine logs during VMAT delivery. Dose distributions were reconstructed from the respiratory signals and machine parameters in the condition where respiratory signals were without division, divided into 4 and 10 phases.
Purpose: Accurate dose measurement in radiotherapy is critically dependent on correction for gain drop, which is the difference of the measured current from the ideal saturation current due to general ion recombination. Although a correction method based on the Boag theory has been employed, the theory assumes that ionized charge density in an ionization chamber (IC) is spatially uniform throughout the irradiation volume. For particle pencil beam scanning, however, the charge density is not uniform, because the fluence distribution of a pencil beam is not uniform.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNihon Hoshasen Gijutsu Gakkai Zasshi
November 2014
Purpose: Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) is a rotational intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) technique capable of acquiring projection images during treatment. The purpose of this study was to reconstruct the dose distribution from respiratory signals and machine parameters acquired during stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT).
Methods: The treatment plans created for VMAT-SBRT included the constraint of 1 mm/degree in multileaf collimator (MLC) for a moving phantom and three patients with lung tumors.
Our work on stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for primary and metastatic lung tumors will be described. The eligibility criteria for SBRT, our previous SBRT method, the definition of target volume, heterogeneity correction, the position adjustment using four-dimensional cone-beam computed tomography (4D CBCT) immediately before SBRT, volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) method for SBRT, verifying of tumor position within internal target volume (ITV) using in-treatment 4D-CBCT during VMAT-SBRT, shortening of treatment time using flattening-filter-free (FFF) techniques, delivery of 4D dose calculation for lung-VMAT patients using in-treatment CBCT and LINAC log data with agility multileaf collimator, and SBRT method for centrally located lung tumors in our institution will be shown. In our institution, these efforts have been made with the goal of raising the local control rate and decreasing adverse effects after SBRT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNihon Hoshasen Gijutsu Gakkai Zasshi
April 2014
Purpose: IGRT (image guided radiation therapy) is a useful technique for implementing precisely targeted radiation therapy. Quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) medical linear accelerators with a portal imaging system (electronic portal imaging device: EPID) are the key to ensuring safe IGRT. The Winston-Lutz test (WLT) provides an evaluation of the MV isocenter, which is the intersection of radiation, collimator, and couch isocenters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLinac parameters such as the multi-leaf collimator (MLC) position and jaw position, cumulative monitor units (MUs), and the corresponding gantry angle were recorded during the clinical delivery of volumetric modulated arc therapy for prostate, lung, and head/neck cancer patients. Then, linac parameters were converted into the beam-data format used in the treatment planning system, and the dose distribution was reconstructed. The dose-volume histogram and the dose difference (DD) were compared with the corresponding values in the treatment plan.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe propose a clinical workflow of stereotactic volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) for a lung tumor from planning to tumor position verification using 4D planning computed tomography (CT) and 4D cone-beam CT (CBCT). A 4D CT scanner, an Anzai belt and a BodyFix were employed to obtain 10-phase respiratory-correlated CT data for a lung patient under constrained breathing conditions. A planning target volume (PTV) was defined by adding a 5-mm margin to an internal target volume created from 10 clinical target volumes, each of which was delineated on each of the 10-phase planning CT data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To study the three-dimensional movement of internal tumor bed fiducial and breast skin markers, using 320-multislice computed tomography (CT); and to analyze intrafractional errors for breast cancer patients undergoing breast irradiation.
Methods And Materials: This study examined 280 markers on the skin of the breast (200 markers) and on the primary tumor bed (80 markers) of 20 patients treated by external-beam photon radiotherapy. Motion assessment was analyzed in 41 respiratory phases during 20 s of cine CT in the radiotherapy position.
The use of respiration-correlated cone-beam computed tomography (4D-CBCT) appears to be crucial for implementing precise radiation therapy of lung cancer patients. The reconstruction of 4D-CBCT images requires a respiratory phase. In this paper, we propose a novel method based on an image-based phase recognition technique using normalized cross correlation (NCC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The purpose of this study was to compare dose distributions from three different algorithms with the x-ray Voxel Monte Carlo (XVMC) calculations, in actual computed tomography (CT) scans for use in stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) of small lung cancers.
Methods: Slow CT scan of 20 patients was performed and the internal target volume (ITV) was delineated on Pinnacle3. All plans were first calculated with a scatter homogeneous mode (SHM) which is compatible with Clarkson algorithm using Pinnacle3 treatment planning system (TPS).
Background: Recording target motion during treatment is important for verifying the irradiated region. Recently, cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) reconstruction from portal images acquired during volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), known as VMAT-CBCT, has been investigated. In this study, we developed a four-dimensional (4D) version of the VMAT-CBCT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA field-size effect of physical doses was studied in scanning irradiation with carbon ions. For the target volumes of 60 x 60 x 80, 40 x 40 x 80, and 20 x 20 x 80 mm3, the doses along the beam axis within the spread-out Bragg peaks reduced to 99.4%, 98.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe authors have developed a method to reconstruct the 3D dose distribution in a particle beam scanning irradiation system. In this scheme, 3D dose distribution is reconstructed by using the measured images of fluence distribution, which are taken for each iso-energy slice (i.e.
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