Rotational IMRT delivery using a digital linear accelerator in very high dose rate 'burst mode'

Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in arc-based IMRT, through the use of 'conventional' multileaf collimator (MLC) systems that can treat large tumor volumes in a single, or very few pass(es) of the gantry. Here we present a novel 'burst mode' modulated arc delivery approach, wherein 2000 monitor units per minute (MU min(-1)) high dose rate bursts of dose are facilitated by a flattening-filter-free treatment beam on a Siemens Artiste (Oncology Care Systems, Siemens Medical Solutions, Concord, CA, USA) digital linear accelerator in a non-clinical configuration. Burst mode delivery differs from continuous mode delivery, used by Elekta's VMAT (Elekta Ltd, Crawley, UK) and Varian's RapidArc (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA, USA) implementations, in that dose is not delivered while MLC leaves are moving. Instead, dose is delivered in bursts over very short arc angles and only after an MLC segment shape has been completely formed and verified by the controller. The new system was confirmed to be capable of delivering a wide array of clinically relevant treatment plans, without machine fault or other delivery anomalies. Dosimetric accuracy of the modulated arc platform, as well as the Prowess (Prowess Inc., Concord, CA, USA) prototype treatment planning version utilized here, was quantified and confirmed, and delivery times were measured as significantly brief, even with large hypofractionated doses. The burst mode modulated arc approach evaluated here appears to represent a capable, accurate and efficient delivery approach.