Cost-effective immobilization for whole brain radiation therapy.

Cost-effective immobilization for whole brain radiation therapy. J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2017 Jun 06;: Authors: Rubinstein AE, Ingram WS, Anderson BM, Gay SS, Fave XJ, Ger RB, McCarroll RE, Owens CA, Netherton TJ, Kisling KD, Court LE, Yang J, Li Y, Lee J, Mackin DS, Cardenas CE Abstract To investigate the inter- and intra-fraction motion associated with the use of a low-cost tape immobilization technique as an alternative to thermoplastic immobilization masks for whole-brain treatments. The results of this study may be of interest to clinical staff with severely limited resources (e.g., in low-income countries) and also when treating patients who cannot tolerate standard immobilization masks. Setup reproducibility of eight healthy volunteers was assessed for two different immobilization techniques. (a) One strip of tape was placed across the volunteer's forehead and attached to the sides of the treatment table. (b) A second strip was added to the first, under the chin, and secured to the table above the volunteer's head. After initial positioning, anterior and lateral photographs were acquired. Volunteers were positioned five times with each technique to allow calculation of inter-fraction reproducibility measurements. To estimate intra-fraction reproducibility, 5-minute anterior and lateral videos were taken for each technique per volunteer. An in-house software was used to analyze the photos and videos to assess setup reproducibilit...
Source: Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics - Category: Physics Authors: Tags: J Appl Clin Med Phys Source Type: research