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Published on: May 8, 2018
Paraspinal volumetric modulated arc therapy
J L Bedford1, H M Convery, V N Hansen
1The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Sutton, UK. james.bedford@icr.ac.uk
Objectives:
The processes involved in the treatment of paraspinal tumours by volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) are described here by means of an illustrative case.
Methods:
Az single anticlockwise arc from gantry angle 179° to 181° was constructed using SmartArc (Philips Radiation Oncology Systems, Fitchburg, WI) with control points spaced at 2°. The dose prescription was 60 Gy in 30 fractions to cover the planning target volume (PTV) as uniformly as possible while sparing the 0.3-cm planning risk volume (PRV) around the spinal cord. The plan was verified before treatment using a diode array phantom and radiochromic film. Treatment delivery was on a Synergy linear accelerator with a beam modulator head (Elekta Ltd, Crawley, UK).
Results:
Homogeneous dose coverage of the PTV was achieved with a D(2%) of 62.0 Gy and D(98%) of 55.6 Gy. Maximum spinal cord dose was 49.9 Gy to 0.1 cm(3) and maximum dose to the spinal cord PRV was 55.4 Gy to 0.1 cm(3). At pre-treatment verification, the percentage of the high-dose region receiving a dose within 3% and 3 mm of the planned dose was 98.8% with the diode array and 93.4% with film. Delivery time was 2 min 15 s and the course of treatment was successfully completed.
Conclusions:
VMAT was successfully planned, verified and delivered for this challenging tumour site. VMAT provides a very suitable method of treating complex paraspinal tumours, offering a high-quality conformal dose distribution with a short delivery time.
