Commissioning of a Versa HD linear accelerator for three commercial treatment planning systems.

In a mixed-vendor radiation oncology environment, it is advantageous if the department's treatment planning system (TPS) supports the linear accelerators of different vendors. In this publication beam data collection and modeling for the Versa HD linear accelerator in Monaco, Pinnacle, and Eclipse are discussed. In each TPS static field, Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) step and shoot, and Volumetric-Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) plans for flattened and flattening-filter free photon beams of all available energies were evaluated for field sizes >3 × 3.

Updated risk models demonstrate low risk of symptomatic radionecrosis following stereotactic radiosurgery for brain metastases.

Background: Improvements in systemic therapy continue to increase survival for patients with brain metastases. Updated dosimetric models are required to optimize long-term safety of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for this indication.

Methods: Patients at a single institution receiving SRS from December 2011 to December 2014 were retrospectively reviewed.

Comparison of treatment planning approaches for spatially fractionated irradiation of deep tumors.

Purpose: The purpose of this work was to compare the dosimetry and delivery times of 3D-conformal (3DCRT)-, volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT)-, and tomotherapy-based approaches for spatially fractionated radiation therapy for deep tumor targets.

Methods: Two virtual GRID phantoms were created consisting of 7 "target" cylinders (1-cm diameter) aligned longitudinally along the tumor in a honey-comb pattern, mimicking a conventional GRID block, with 2-cm center-to-center spacing (GRID ) and 3-cm center-to-center spacing (GRID ), all contained within a larger cylinder (8 and 10 cm in diameter for the GRID and GRID , respectively). In a single patient, a GRID structure was created within the gross tumor volume (GTV).

Patterns of Incident Reporting Across Clinical Sites in a Regionally Expanding Academic Radiation Oncology Department.

Purpose: We evaluated patterns of event reporting across five clinical locations within an academic radiation oncology department, with the goal of better understanding variability across sites.

Methods And Materials: We analyzed 1,351 events reported to a departmental incident learning system over 1 calendar year across the five locations with respect to volume of events, event type, process map location of origin and detection, and event reporter.

Results: We found marked variability in reporting patterns, including reporting rate, event type, event severity, event location of origin and detection within the departmental process map, and discipline of event reporters.

Ga-PSMA-PET/CT imaging of localized primary prostate cancer patients for intensity modulated radiation therapy treatment planning with integrated boost.

Purpose: The purpose of our study was to show the feasibility and potential benefits of using Ga-PSMA-PET/CT imaging for radiation therapy treatment planning of patients with primary prostate cancer using either integrated boost on the PET-positive volume or localized treatment of the PET-positive volume. The potential gain of such an approach, the improvement of tumor control, and reduction of the dose to organs-at-risk at the same time was analyzed using the QUANTEC biological model.

Methods: Twenty-one prostate cancer patients (70 years average) without previous local therapy received Ga-PSMA-PET/CT imaging.