Dose prescription and reporting in stereotactic body radiotherapy: A multi-institutional study.

Background And Purpose: Radiation dose prescriptions are foundational for optimizing treatment efficacy and limiting treatment-related toxicity. We sought to assess the lack of standardization of SBRT dose prescriptions across institutions.

Materials & Methods: Dosimetric data from 1298 patients from 9 academic institutions treated with IMRT and VMAT were collected.

A modified COMS plaque for iris melanoma.

Melanoma of the iris is a rare condition compared to posterior ocular tumors and in this case report we present a 51-year-old female patient with diffuse iris melanoma. Traditional COMS (Collaborative Ocular Melanoma Study) plaques are used at our institution for radiation therapy, so a novel modification of the traditional plaque was required to allow better conformance with placement on the cornea. The usual silastic insert was machined to dimensions in compliance with the cornea, placed without incident, and treatment delivered with excellent patient tolerance of the modified plaque.

Process control analysis of IMRT QA: implications for clinical trials.

The purpose of this study is two-fold: first is to investigate the process of IMRT QA using control charts and second is to compare control chart limits to limits calculated using the standard deviation (sigma). Head and neck and prostate IMRT QA cases from seven institutions in both academic and community settings are considered. The percent difference between the point dose measurement in phantom and the corresponding result from the treatment planning system (TPS) is used for analysis.

Moving from IMRT QA measurements toward independent computer calculations using control charts.

Background And Purpose: In this study, we investigated IMRT QA using Statistical Process Control for the purpose of comparing the processes of patient-specific measurements and the corresponding independent computer calculations.

Materials And Methods: Point dose data from the treatment planning system (TPS), independent computer calculations, and physical measurements for prostate and head and neck cases were studied. Control charts were used to analyze the IMRT QA processes from several institutions in the academic and community setting.