Northern Sydney Cancer Centre, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
To compare online position verification strategies with offline correction protocols for patients undergoing definitive prostate radiotherapy.
We analysed 50 patients with implanted fiducial markers undergoing curative prostate radiation treatment, all of whom underwent daily kilovoltage imaging using an on-board imager. For each treatment, patients were set-up initially with skin tattoos and in-room lasers. Orthogonal on-board imager images were acquired and the couch shift to match both bony anatomy and the fiducial markers recorded. The set-up error using skin tattoos and offline bone correction was compared with online bone correction. The fiducial markers were used as the reference.
Data from 1923 fractions were analysed. The systematic error was ≤ 1mm for all protocols. The average random error was 2-3mm for online bony correction and 3-5mm for skin tattoos or offline-bone. Online-bone showed a significant improvement compared with offline-bone in the number of patients with >5mm set-up errors for >10% (P< 0.001) and >20% (P< 0.003) of their fractions.
Online correction to bony anatomy reduces both systematic and random set-up error in patients undergoing prostate radiotherapy, and is superior to offline correction methods for those patients not suitable for fiducial markers or daily soft-tissue imaging.
Written by:
Johnston ML, Vial P, Wiltshire KL, Bell LJ, Blome S, Kerestes Z, Morgan GW, O'Driscoll D, Shakespeare TP, Eade TN. Are you the author?
Reference: Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2011 Apr 4. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1016/j.clon.2011.02.013
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21470835
UroToday.com Prostate Cancer Section
