Calculating radiotherapy margins based on Bayesian modelling of patient specific random errors.

Collected real-life clinical target volume (CTV) displacement data show that some patients undergoing external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) demonstrate significantly more fraction-to-fraction variability in their displacement ('random error') than others. This contrasts with the common assumption made by historical recipes for margin estimation for EBRT, that the random error is constant across patients. In this work we present statistical models of CTV displacements in which random errors are characterised by an inverse gamma (IG) distribution in order to assess the impact of random error variability on CTV-to-PTV margin widths, for eight real world patient cohorts from four institutions, and for different sites of malignancy.

Ga-68 MAA Perfusion 4D-PET/CT Scanning Allows for Functional Lung Avoidance Using Conformal Radiation Therapy Planning.

Background: Ga-68-macroaggregated albumin ((68)Ga-perfusion) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is a novel imaging technique for the assessment of functional lung volumes. The purpose of this study was to use this imaging technique for functional adaptation of definitive radiotherapy plans in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods: This was a prospective clinical trial of patients with NSCLC who received definitive 3-dimensional (3D) conformal radiotherapy to 60 Gy in 30 fx and underwent pretreatment respiratory-gated (4-dimensional [4D]) perfusion PET/CT.

A planning study investigating dual-gated volumetric arc stereotactic treatment of primary renal cell carcinoma.

This is a planning study investigating the dosimetric advantages of gated volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) to the end-exhale and end-inhale breathing phases for patients undergoing stereotactic treatment of primary renal cell carcinoma. VMAT plans were developed from the end-inhale (VMATinh) and the end-exhale (VMATexh) phases of the breathing cycle as well as a VMAT plan and 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy plan based on an internal target volume (ITV) (VMATitv). An additional VMAT plan was created by giving the respective gated VMAT plan a 50% weighting and summing the inhale and exhale plans together to create a summed gated plan.

Stereotactic ablative body radiation therapy for primary kidney cancer: a 3-dimensional conformal technique associated with low rates of early toxicity.

Purpose: To describe our 3-dimensional conformal planning approaches and report early toxicities with stereotactic body radiation therapy for the management of primary renal cell carcinoma.

Methods And Materials: This is an analysis of a phase 1 trial of stereotactic body radiation therapy for primary inoperable renal cell carcinoma. A dose of 42 Gy/3 fractions was prescribed to targets ≥5 cm, whereas for <5 cm 26 Gy/1 fraction was used.

The use of dual vacuum stabilization device to reduce kidney motion for stereotactic radiotherapy planning.

Abdominal stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy is aided by motion management strategies to ensure accurate dose delivery as targets such as the kidney are easily influenced by breathing motion. Commercial devices such as compression plates and dual vacuum technology have been demonstrated to reduce the motion of lung and liver tumors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a dual vacuum system in reducing kidney motion as well to investigate any relationship between abdominal wall motions with kidney motion.