Publications by authors named "Norihisa Masai"

Background/aim: Stereotactic body radiotherapy for prostate cancer using CyberKnife with circular cone requires a long treatment time. Raster scanning intensity modulated radiotherapy (RS-IMRT) has a potential of improving treatment efficacy, introducing shorter treatment time, better target dose uniformity, and lower organ at risk (OAR) dose. The purpose of the study was to develop a fluence optimization system for RS-IMRT.

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Elective nodal irradiation (ENI) and involved field radiotherapy (IFRT) are definitive radiotherapeutic approaches used to treat patients with limited-disease small cell lung cancer (LD-SCLC). However, no solid consensus exists on their optimal target volume. The current study aimed to assess the clinical outcomes of patients with LD-SCLC who received definitive ENI or IFRT.

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Treatment time with the CyberKnife frameless radiosurgery system is prolonged due to the motion of the robotic arm. We have developed a novel scanning irradiation method to reduce treatment time. We generated treatment plans mimicking eight-field intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) plans generated for the Novalis radiosurgery system.

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Article Synopsis
  • - This study analyzed data from Varian C-series linear accelerators to assess the reliability of average beam data as reference points for verifying radiotherapy treatment planning systems.
  • - Researchers collected and averaged data from 20 machines for 4, 6, and 10 MV photon beams, focusing on percent depth dose (PDD), off-center ratio (OCR), and output factor (OPF).
  • - Results showed that dose differences from the average were very small (less than 1.0%), indicating that the average data can generally serve as reliable reference data for most field sizes in commissioning processes, except for small field sizes.
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  • * Eleven TrueBeam systems from nine institutions were analyzed, utilizing a VMAT plan created in Eclipse. Various measurements were conducted, including dose metrics from an ionization chamber and film dosimetry.
  • * The findings revealed a low mean point dose difference (1.0% ± 0.6%) and high gamma pass rates (over 99% for 3%/2 mm criteria), suggesting reliable agreement between measured and calculated doses. This supports using consistent multi-leaf collimator parameters across institutions to enhance radiation treatment uniformity.
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  • * TG-100 is applicable to various advanced technologies in radiotherapy, aiming to improve safety measures and overall process efficiency.
  • * The methodology focuses on identifying vulnerabilities in treatment procedures by evaluating potential failure modes, highlighting the need for skilled staff and proper resources in modern radiotherapy.
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Article Synopsis
  • Modern treatment machines like the TrueBeam have minimal differences in beam data across units, but lack specific multi-leaf collimator (MLC) parameters like leaf transmission factor (LTF) and dosimetric leaf gap (DLG) in their average data provided by vendors.
  • A survey involving 69 sets of linear accelerator data from 58 institutions explored MLC measurement protocols for intensity-modulated (IMRT) and volumetric modulated radiotherapy (VMAT).
  • Findings reveal that while LTF values showed small variability across units, DLG values varied significantly, with many institutions adjusting DLG upwards and standardizing measurement conditions, ultimately providing median values to improve MLC installation accuracy.
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Purpose: Detector-dependent interinstitutional variations of the beam data may lead to uncertainties of the delivered dose to patients. Here we evaluated the inter-unit variability of the flattened and flattening filter-free (FFF) beam data of multiple TrueBeam (Varian Medical Systems) linear accelerators focusing on the small-field dosimetry.

Methods: The beam data of 6- and 10-MV photon beams with and without flattening filter measured for modeling of an iPLAN treatment planning system (BrainLAB) were collected from 12 institutions - ten HD120 Multileaf Collimator (MLC) and two Millennium120 MLC.

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Article Synopsis
  • - This study investigates how different types of detectors affect the variability in specific beam parameters for TrueBeam™ linear accelerators across 19 institutions, focusing on metrics like percent depth dose (PDD), off-center ratio (OCR), and output factor (OPF).
  • - Data collected from 24 beam datasets revealed that while ionization chambers (CC13 and PTW31010) generally showed larger penumbra widths and consistent measurements, diode and diamond detectors exhibited significantly smaller penumbra values.
  • - Overall, findings indicated that most beam-specific parameters, excluding penumbra measurements, had minimal inter-institutional variability, showing less than 1% differences, suggesting reliability in these measurements across various detectors, despite some exceptions in
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Detector selection and technical problems can result in large variations in small-field-dosimetry data among institutions. In this study, we evaluated inter-institutional variability in the small-field-beam data of the Novalis Tx linear accelerator (Varian Medical Systems and BrainLAB) with an HD120 multileaf collimator. Beam data for modeling an iPLAN treatment planning system (BrainLAB) were collected from 19 institutions and median values of percentage depth doses (PDD), diagonal profiles, transversal profiles, and ratios of detector readings (detector output factors; OF ) were calculated.

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Background/aim: The long-term efficacy and safety of moderately hypofractionated intensity-modulated radiation therapy (MH-IMRT) in prostate cancer remains uncertain. This study aimed to evaluate MH-IMRT regimen of 72 Gy in 30 fractions in patients with prostate cancer.

Patients And Methods: The outcomes of 412 consecutive prostate cancer patients, who received MH-IMRT between May 2007 and December 2012, were retrospectively reviewed.

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Background: There has been a paradigm shift in the treatment for optic nerve sheath meningioma (ONSM) from surgery to fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT) in other countries. However, FSRT has seldom been performed in Japan. The purpose of this retrospective study is to reconfirm the effectiveness of early intervention with precision radiotherapy for ONSM reported in our previous study.

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A 70's man had been treated with gemcitabine(GEM)and nab-paclitaxel(nabPTX)combination for advanced pancreatic tail cancer with splenic invasion and liver metastases. However, the primary lesion was not controlled, then intensity-modulat- ed radiation therapy(76.5 Gy/17 Fr)was performed for primary lesion.

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Purpose: To analyze the outcomes following re-irradiation for local recurrence of rare head and neck tumors.

Material And Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 11 patients who had received intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for recurrent tumors in the head and neck except for laryngopharynx.

Results: Primary tumor sites included the maxillary sinus, nasal cavity, and external ear canal in six, three, and two patients, respectively.

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Metastatic liver tumors (MLTs) from colorectal cancer (CRC) are often treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). The present study aimed to examine the predictive factors for response of MLTs to SBRT. A total of 39 MLTs from 24 patients with CRC were retrospectively analyzed.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study aimed to find the best average liver biologically effective dose (BED) that can help prevent radiation-induced liver disease (RILD) during stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT).
  • It analyzed treatment plans for 50 patients with liver tumors and used a model to convert physical doses to BED, exploring how these doses relate to the liver's tolerability and the planning target volume (PTV).
  • The results showed that specific mean BED values (73 Gy for Child-Pugh A patients and 16 Gy for B patients) effectively prevent RILD, with strong correlations found between the mean doses and PTVs.
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We aimed to describe the feasibility and efficacy of a novel non-invasive fixation and monitoring (F-M) device for the eyeballs (which uses a right-angle prism mirror as the optic axis guide) in three consecutive patients with choroidal melanoma who were treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). The device consists of an immobilization shell, a right-angle prism mirror, a high magnification optical zoom video camera, a guide lamp, a digital voice recorder, a personal computer, and a National Television System Committee standard analog video cable. Using the right-angle prism mirror, the antero-posterior axis was determined coincident with the optic axis connecting the centers of the cornea and pupil.

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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the threshold dose for focal liver damage after stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in cirrhotic and normal livers using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A total of 64 patients who underwent SBRT for liver tumors, including 54 cirrhotic patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and 10 non-cirrhotic patients with liver metastases, were analyzed. MRI was performed 3-6 months after SBRT, using gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid-enhanced T1-weighted sequences.

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Surgical resection is a well-established treatment option for sarcoma. However, anatomical barriers often hamper radical surgical procedures. The treatment of unresectable sarcoma, including local or distant failures following initial treatment, is challenging.

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Purpose: Four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) is widely used for evaluating moving tumors, including lung and liver cancers. For patients with unstable respiration, however, the 4DCT may not visualize tumor motion properly. High-speed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences (cine-MRI) permit direct visualization of respiratory motion of liver tumors without considering radiation dose exposure to patients.

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Swept source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) is a convenient method for precise, early-stage detection of choroidal metastatic lesions, involving assessment of tumor response, and for regular follow-up studies. Using information obtained with SS-OCT, we performed intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for a patient with choroidal metastasis from breast cancer with more accuracy than had been previously possible. We made replanning adaptive radiotherapy (ART) three times based on the rapid tumor shrinkage detected by weekly assessments with SS-OCT.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of Monte Carlo (MC) calculations and optimized dose definitions in stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for lung cancer patients. We used a retrospective patient review and basic virtual phantom to determine dose prescriptions. Fifty-three patients underwent SBRT.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to validate the dose prescription for stereotactic radiotherapy in lung cancer by analyzing 3D and 4D dose distributions for 94 patients using CT scans during free breathing.
  • An 8 mm margin was added to the internal target volume to establish the planning target volume, and a 2 mm leaf margin was included; the goal was for 99% of the gross tumor volume to receive the full dose based on Monte Carlo calculations.
  • Results showed that the average dose delivered to the tumor was nearly 100% in both the 3D and 4D planning, with no significant difference between the two methods, validating the treatment planning process for clinical applications.
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An optical interference-pattern, a moire artifact, is produced during the film scanning process using a flatbed scanner. Images with moire artifacts include optical density fluctuations thereby leading to inaccuracy of measurement. In this study, we proposed two methods for removing moire artifacts from radiochromic film and compared dose response and profile as well as image resolution and size between our proposed methods versus the conventional process.

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The purpose of this work is to retrospectively analyze the effect of the inhomogeneity correction using clinically treated plan of stage III non-small-cell lung cancer within multiple institutions in Japan. Twenty-five patients among five facilities of radiation therapy were registered for this study. The isocenter dose or D(95) of PTV or other important values were compared with and without an inhomogeneity correction using model-based algorithm.

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