PURPOSE This study investigated setup error and effectiveness of weekly image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) of TomoDirect for early breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred and fifty-one breasts of 147 consecutive patients who underwent breast conserving surgery followed by whole breast irradiation using TomoDirect in 2012 and 2013 were evaluated. All patients received weekly IGRT. The w...

We have developed a computerized method for estimating patient setup errors in portal images based on localized pelvic templates for prostate cancer radiotherapy. The patient setup errors were estimated based on a template-matching technique that compared the portal image and a localized pelvic template image with a clinical target volume produced from a digitally reconstructed radiography (DRR...

Background: To correct patient positioning errors (setup errors) during prostate cancer treatment using EPID and fiducial gold markers, to improve the accuracy of the dose delivery in these patients. Materials and Methods: Fifteen patients with localized prostate carcinoma after implantation of fiducial gold markers in their prostate gland underwent the five-field IMRT planning technique. The p...

The potential for systematic errors in radiotherapy of a breathing patient is considered using the statistical model of Bortfeld et al (2002 Phys. Med. Biol. 47 2203-20). It is shown that although averaging over 30 fractions does result in a narrow Gaussian distribution of errors, as predicted by the central limit theorem, the fact that one or a few samples of the breathing patient's motion dis...

In recent years, new radiotherapy techniques have emerged that aim to improve treatment outcome and reduce toxicity. The standard method of evaluating such techniques is to conduct large scale multicenter clinical trials, often across continents. A major challenge for such trials is quality assurance to ensure consistency of treatment across all participating centers. Analyses from previous stu...