Développement d'un outil de détermination expérimentale 3D de la dose délivrée aux tissus sains en radiothérapie externe

International audienc

Développement d'un outil de détermination expérimentale 3D de la dose délivrée aux tissus sains en radiothérapie externe

International audienc

Development of an experimental 3-D tool based on radiochromic films to determine normal tissue doses in external radiotherapy

International audienc

Recommandations pour un protocole d'assurance de qualité de la radiothérapie conformationnelle avec modulation d'intensité des cancers de la tête et du cou

Head and neck tumors represent very interesting targets for IMRT techniques because of the complex shape of the structures and the organs at risk close by. The use of this kind of techniques requires a quality assurance protocol. The physicists of the GORTEC group shared their experience to define some recommendations in order to draw up a QA protocol. The dosimetric verification of the treatment plans (in terms of absolute and relative dose), the control of the reproducibility of the patient positioning and the use of a record and verify system to control the different parameters form the main parts of these recommendations. Each chapter comprises a description of the different methods, recommendations concerning the equipment, the adopted tolerances, the frequency of controls. At the end of each chapter, a table summarizes the main actions to carry out. These recommendations will allow to harmonize our practices whatever the softwares and the accelerator that are being used. They will simplify the task of the teams that wish to implement IMRT for head and neck tumors. © 2004 Elsevier SAS. Tous droits réservés

Technique alternatives for breast radiation oncology: Conventional radiation therapy to tomotherapy

Breast conserving radiotherapy uses tangential fields and compensating wedges. This conventional approach can be improved by a field-in-field technique using the linac multi-leaf collimator (MLC). A simplified field-in-field technique that planners can easily achieve and which improves dose uniformity in the breast volume is presented here. Field junction problems are more easily solved by the use of a virtual simulation. A unique isocenter can be set at the junction between the supra-clavicular field and the breast tangential fields. However, careful quality assurance of the treatment planning system must be performed. Tomotherapy has promising clinical advantages: the ability of a tomographic image to correct for random set-up errors, a continuous cranio-caudal delivery which suppresses junction problems, the conformality of the dose distribution throughout the complex volumes formed by the lymph nodes and the breasts. Tomotherapy is a valuable recourse for complex irradiations like bilateral breast or mammary plus axillary irradiation while a field-in-field associated with a unique isocenter technique can be used for majority of the patients