Three dimensional (3D) imaging is key to the successful planning and delivery of pelvic radiotherapy treatment and is integrated into every step of the radiotherapy treatment pathway. Diagnostic and therapeutic imaging technology has evolved in the last decade, increasing the complexity of imaging choices available for target localisation, and introducing soft tissue visualisation into the trea...

Radiation therapy has come a long way from treatment planning based on orthogonal radiographs with large margins around tumours. Advances in imaging and radiation planning software have led to three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy and, further, to intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). IMRT permits sparing of normal tissues and hence dose-escalation to tumours. IMRT is the current standard...

We illustrate the principle of conformal radiotherapy by discussing the case of a patient with a primitive neuroectodermal tumour of the chest wall. Recent advances in radiotherapy planning enable precise localization of the planning target volume (PTV) and normal organs at risk of irradiation. Customized blocks are subsequently designed to produce a treatment field that 'conforms' to the PTV. ...

PURPOSE Head and neck radiotherapy planning with positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) requires the images to be reliably registered with treatment planning CT. Acquiring PET/CT in treatment position is problematic, and in practice for some patients it may be beneficial to use diagnostic PET/CT for radiotherapy planning. Therefore, the aim of this study was first to quantify...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE One of the newer audit modalities operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) involves audits of treatment planning systems (TPS) in radiotherapy. The main focus of the audit is the dosimetry verification of the delivery of a radiation treatment plan for three-dimensional (3D) conformal radiotherapy using high energy photon beams. The audit has been carried ...

In a radiotherapy department having more than one linear accelerator, it is rather common to match the dose output of all machines. In particular, the recently developed flattening filter free mode requires new investigations regarding the feasibility of matching and the consequences for quality assurance and workload. This refers also to the beam model of the radiotherapy treatment planning sy...

background : this study determines the efficacy and tolerability of hypofraction- ated three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy in conjunction with daily temozolomide in treatment of previously irradiated recurrent malignant glioma. methods :we enrolled 21 patients diagnosed with recurrent or progressive malignant glioma who previously underwent external beam irradiation. all patients had hypof...