BACKGROUND Respiration-gated radiotherapy (RGRT) can decrease treatment toxicity by allowing for smaller treatment volumes for mobile tumors. RGRT is commonly performed using external surrogates of tumor motion. We describe the use of time-integrated electronic portal imaging (TI-EPI) to verify the position of internal structures during RGRT delivery METHODS TI-EPI portals were generated by c...

A clinical workflow was developed for urgent palliative radiotherapy treatments that integrates patient simulation, planning, quality assurance, and treatment in one 30-minute session. This has been successfully tested and implemented clinically on a linac with MV CBCT capabilities. To make this approach available to all clin-ics equipped with common imaging systems, dose calculation accuracy b...

introduction wedge modifiers are commonly applied in external beam radiotherapy to change the dose distribution corresponding to the body contour and to obtain a uniform dose distribution within the target volume. since the radiation dose delivered to the target must be within ±5% of the prescribed dose, accurate dose calculation by a treatment planning system (tps) is important. the objective ...

background: the heterogeneous composition of the human body presents numerous tissue types and cavities with widely differing radiologic properties. the aim of the present work was to develop a low cost homogeneous and heterogeneous phantom and the absorbed dose were measured by ionization chamber for different radiotherapy treatment techniques and compared with treatment planning system absorb...

Introduction: In radiation therapy, the accuracy of dose calculations by a treatment planning system (TPS) is important to achieve tumor control and to spare normal tissue. Treatment planning system calculations in the heterogeneous situation may present significant inaccuracies. In this study, three different dose calculation algorithms, pencil beam (PB), collapsed cone (CC), ...

Background: We have validated the monitor unit calculations from a commercially available treatment planning system (TPS) for three intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) planning techniques for tangential breast irradiation by using ionization chamber measurements. Materials and Methods: Treatment plans were generated for forty-two breast patients by a forward planned field in field ...

To investigate the reproducibility of computed tomography (CT) imaging quality in respiratory-gated radiation treatment planning is essential in radiotherapy of movable tumors. Seven series of regular and six series of irregular respiratory motions were performed using a thorax dynamic phantom. For the regular respiratory motions, the respiratory cycle was changed from 2.5 to 4 s and the amplit...

Prostate brachytherapy involves implanting radioactive seeds (I125 for instance) permanently in the gland for the treatment of localized prostate cancers, e.g., cT1c-T2a N0 M0 with good prognostic factors. Treatment planning and seed implanting are most often based on the intensive use of transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) imaging. This is not easy because prostate visualization is difficult in this...

Introduction: In brachytherapy, radioactive sources are placed close to the tumor, therefore, small changes in their positions can cause large changes in the dose distribution. This emphasizes the need for computerized treatment planning. The usual method for treatment planning of cervix brachytherapy uses conventional radiographs in the Manchester system. Nowadays, because of their advantages ...