Radiation therapy is an important modality in treating various cancers. Various treatment planning and delivery technologies have emerged to support intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), creating significant opportunities to advance this type of treatment. However, one of the fundamental questions in treatment planning and optimization, 'can we produce better treatment plans relying on ...

BACKGROUND There is growing interest in stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) as a noninvasive means of treating inoperable hepatic metastases and primary intrahepatic hepatobiliary carcinomas. While initial outcomes are encouraging, the safety of delivering such large, ablative doses is still being studied. METHODS We compiled all dose-volume constraints from seven prospective trials of...

A Monte Carlo based inverse treatment planning system (MCI) has been developed which combines arguably the most accurate dose calculation method (Monte Carlo particle transport) with a 'guaranteed' optimization method (simulated annealing). A distribution of photons is specified in the tumour volume; they are transported using an adjoint calculation method to outside the patient surface to buil...