Can Conformity-Based Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy Improve Dosimetry and Speed of Delivery in Radiation Therapy to Lumbosacral Spine Compared to Conventional Techniques?

VMAT is generally been perceived as too time and resource intensive for palliative radiation therapy (pRT), mainly due to the need for extensive OAR contouring. Dose limiting conformity objectives around the planning target volume can be automatically generated, and are commonly used to conform isodoses closely around the target volumes during inverse planning. The aim of this study is to determine if conformity based structures can be used to create VMAT plans for lumbosacral spine pRT without OAR contours, that will improve conformity, dose homogeneity and speed of delivery compared to standard forward planning approaches.
Source: Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences - Category: Radiology Authors: Source Type: research