Treatment Planning Study of Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy for Same-Day Planning and Treatment of Vertebral Bone Metastases Within a Rapid-Access Palliative Radiation Therapy Program

Rapid-access palliative radiation therapy (RT) programs provide same-day consultation, treatment planning and delivery. Due to time pressures, they typically administer RT to vertebral bone metastases using simple techniques. Incorporating highly-conformal techniques into these programs could potentially improve the therapeutic ratio by reducing the volumes of adjacent organs receiving higher RT doses. A presumed barrier to this at our institution has been prolonged treatment planning times using a Monte Carlo dose calculation engine.
Source: Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences - Category: Radiology Authors: Source Type: research