Inverse planning in Gamma Knife radiosurgery: A comparative planning study.

Purpose: To determine the advantages of inverse planning using a prerelease version of Leksell Gamma Knife® (LGK) Lightning (Elekta AB, Sweden) compared to manual forward planning.

Methods: Thirty-eight patients with metastases (MET, n = 15), vestibular schwannomas (VS, n = 11) and meningiomas (MEN, n = 12), treated with LGK Icon™ at our institution, were analyzed retrospectively. For each case, an inverse (inv) and inverse full coverage (fc) treatment plan was generated using LGK Lightning and compared to the clinical plans.