Order From Chaos: The Benefits of Standardized Nomenclature in Radiation Oncology.

Although standardization has been shown to improve patient safety and improve the efficiency of workflows, implementation of standards can take considerable effort and requires the engagement of all clinical stakeholders. Engaging team members includes increasing awareness of the proposed benefit of the standard, a clear implementation plan, monitoring for improvements, and open communication to support successful implementation. The benefits of standardization often focus on large institutions to improve research endeavors, yet all clinics can benefit from standardization to increase quality and implement more efficient or automated workflow.

American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group 263: Standardizing Nomenclatures in Radiation Oncology.

A substantial barrier to the single- and multi-institutional aggregation of data to supporting clinical trials, practice quality improvement efforts, and development of big data analytics resource systems is the lack of standardized nomenclatures for expressing dosimetric data. To address this issue, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Task Group 263 was charged with providing nomenclature guidelines and values in radiation oncology for use in clinical trials, data-pooling initiatives, population-based studies, and routine clinical care by standardizing: (1) structure names across image processing and treatment planning system platforms; (2) nomenclature for dosimetric data (eg, dose-volume histogram [DVH]-based metrics); (3) templates for clinical trial groups and users of an initial subset of software platforms to facilitate adoption of the standards; (4) formalism for nomenclature schema, which can accommodate the addition of other structures defined in the future. A multisociety, multidisciplinary, multinational group of 57 members representing stake holders ranging from large academic centers to community clinics and vendors was assembled, including physicists, physicians, dosimetrists, and vendors.

SU-E-J-131: Implement a Passive Breath Gating Equipment for Gated CBCT Imaging: A Feasibility Study.

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of using a patient passive breath gating (PBG) equipment in kilo-voltage cone-beam CT (kVCBCT) image acquisition to reduce the respiratory induced motion artifacts for image-guided radiotherapy.

Methods: A PBG equipment developed in our department was used to passively block patient's breathing. Assisted by this device, patients were able to hold their breaths for 15-25 seconds.

SU-E-T-154: Online Dose Verification with Gafchromic Film for Fixed-Gantry and Rotational Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy: A Phantom Study.

Purpose: The patient specific quality assurance (QA) measurements for fixed-gantry and rotational intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT and VMAT/RapidArc) are usually performed on a homogeneous phantom prior to the treatment. The purpose of this study is to develop an online method to verify the delivered dose to the patient on the treatment day.

Methods: An anthropomorphic (Rando) head phantom was immobilized in treatment position with a thermoplastic mask to simulate a real patient.

Prevention of lung cancer.

Lung cancer chemoprevention continued to make progress in 1997. The incidence of tobacco abuse continues to slowly fall in the United States, and paralleling it, lung cancer incidence. Biomarkers of carcinogenesis and susceptibility continue to be an important area in identifying high-risk patients.