The purpose of this study was to create AAPM TG 119 benchmark plans for volumetric arc therapy (VMAT) and to compare VMAT plans with IMRT plan data. AAPM TG 119 proposes a set of test clinical cases for testing the accuracy of IMRT planning and delivery system. For these test cases, we generated two treatment plans, the first plan using 7-9 static dMLC IMRT fields and a second plan utilizing on...

Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) has become an effective tool for cancer treatment with radiation. However, even expert radiation planners still need to spend a substantial amount of time manually adjusting IMRT optimization parameters such as dose limits and costlet weights in order to obtain a clinically acceptable plan. In this paper, we describe two main advances that simplify the pa...

INTRODUCTION Results of use of methodology for VMAT commissioning and quality assurance, utilizing both control point tests and dosimetric measurements are presented. METHODS AND MATERIALS A generalizable, phantom measurement approach is used to characterize the accuracy of the measurement system. Correction for angular response of the measurement system and inclusion of couch structures are ...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a commercial knowledge-based planning system, in volumetric modulated arc therapy for prostate cancer at multiple radiation therapy departments. METHODS In each institute, > 20 cases were assessed. For the knowledge-based planning, the estimated dose (ED) based on geometric and dosimetric information of plans was generated in...

Benchmarking Flattening Filter-Free Photons for IMRT/VMAT using TG119 By Sarah Ashmeg Graduate Program in Medical Physics Duke University Date: _______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Jennifer O’Daniel, Co-Supervisor ___________________________ Fang-Fang Yin, Co-Supervisor ___________________________ Timothy Turkington An abstract of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillme...

PURPOSE Radiotherapy of the neck is known to cause carotid artery stenosis. We compared the carotid artery dose received between volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) and conventional fixed-field intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) plans in patients with early glottic cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-one early glottic cancer patients who previously underwent definitive radiotherapy ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to assess plan quality and treatment time achievable with the new VMAT optimization tool implemented in the treatment planning system Oncentra MasterPlan® as compared to IMRT for Elekta SynergyS® linear accelerators. MATERIALS AND METHODS VMAT was implemented on a SynergyS® linear accelerator (Elekta Ltd., Crawley, UK) with Mosaiq® record a...

PURPOSE We aim to evaluate the effects of multileaf collimator (MLC) leaf width (5 mm vs. 2.5 mm) on the radiosurgery planning for the treatment of spine lesions according to the modulated techniques (intensity-modulated radiotherapy [IMRT] vs. volumetric-modulated arc therapy [VMAT]) and the complexity of the target shape. METHODS For this study, artificial spinal lesions were contoured and ...

BACKGROUND To compare volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) with conventional step and shoot intensity modulated radiation therapy (s-IMRT) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients, and identify which T category patient gains the maximum benefit from VMAT. METHODS Fifty-two patients that randomly selected from 205 patients received VMAT at a single center were retrospectively replanned wi...