The objective of this study was to assess late toxicity and quality of life (QOL) for patients receiving definitive intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) with regard to normal tissue sparing objectives. Three hundred and seventy-two consecutive men treated with definitive IMRT for prostate adenocarcinoma. Toxicity was graded by CTC v3.0 genitourinary ...

BACKGROUND The specific aim was to determine national patterns of radiation therapy (RT) practice in patients treated for stage IB-IV (nonmetastatic) gastric cancer (GC). METHODS AND MATERIALS A national process survey of randomly selected US RT facilities was conducted which retrospectively assessed demographics, staging, geographic region, practice setting, and treatment by using on-site re...

BACKGROUND To evaluate the efficacy of hypofractionated radiotherapy (HyRT) with or without image guided radiotherapy (IGRT) in intermediate risk prostate cancer. METHODS 105 patients were treated with HyRT, 43,8 Gy and 54,75 Gy were delivered to the seminal vescicles and to the prostate, respectively; 3,65 Gy/fraction three times weekly. All patients underwent 9 months hormonal therapy. Pati...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this clinical study is to investigate the clinical feasibility and safety of a shuttle-based MR-linac connection to provide MR-guided radiotherapy. METHODS/DESIGN A total of 40 patients with an indication for a neoadjuvant, adjuvant or definitive radiation treatment will be recruited including tumors of the head and neck region, thorax, upper gastrointestinal tract a...

BACKGROUND To simplify the adaptive treatment planning workflow while achieving the optimal tumor-dose coverage in pancreatic cancer patients undergoing daily adaptive magnetic resonance image guided radiation therapy (MR-IGRT). METHODS In daily adaptive MR-IGRT, the plan objective function constructed during simulation is used for plan re-optimization throughout the course of treatment. In t...

PURPOSE The imaging characteristics of two popular kV cone-beam CT (CBCT) and two MVCT systems utilised in image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) were evaluated. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was performed on Varian Clinac iX, Elekta Synergy S, Siemens Oncor, and Tomotherapy. A CT phantom (Catphan-504, Phantom Laboratory, Salem, NY) was scanned for measurements of image quality including ima...

Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) using computed tomography (CT), conebeam CT, MV on-board imager (OBI), and kV OBI systems have allowed for more accurate patient positioning prior to each treatment fraction. While these imaging modalities provide excellent bony anatomy image quality, MRI surpasses them in soft tissue image contrast for better visualization and tracking of soft tissue tumor...

Radiation therapy has an important role in the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer and can be used alone or in conjunction with surgery and/or systemic chemotherapy. Because of the challenge of delivering an accurate and optimal radiation dose, image-guided radiation therapy can be used to improve targeting. Fiducial markers can be placed in the tumor and used for loca...

TG-69 is a task group report of the AAPM on the use of radiographic film for dosimetry. Radiographic films have been used for radiation dosimetry since the discovery of x-rays and have become an integral part of dose verification for both routine quality assurance and for complex treatments such as soft wedges (dynamic and virtual), intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), image guided rad...