Patient doses from image-guided radiation therapy

Recent publications show that some patients receive high cumulative radiation doses from recurrent CT examinations. Most of these patients had a diagnosis of malignancy, meaning that there was a likelihood that they would receive radiation therapy, possibly with image guidance. Patients receiving X-ray-based image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) receive even more imaging dose, including to volumes of tissue outside the tumor target volume. The benefits of IGRT must be considered in light of the additional dose received. Monitoring and recording of the imaging dose should be considered, as should techniques to reduce both the dose and volume irradiated.