PURPOSE: To evaluate the usefulness of guided breathing for dose rate-regulated tracking (DRRT), a new technique to compensate for intrafraction tumor motion. METHODS AND MATERIALS: DRRT uses a preprogrammed multileaf collimator sequence that tracks the tumor motion derived from four-dimensional computed tomography and the corresponding breathing signals measured before treatment. Because the multileaf collimator speed can be controlled by adjusting the dose rate, the multileaf collimator positions are adjusted in real time during treatment by dose rate regulation, thereby maintaining synchrony with the tumor motion. DRRT treatment was simulated with free, audio-guided, and audiovisual-guided breathing signals acquired from 23 lung cancer patients. The tracking error and duty cycle for each patient were determined as a function of the system time delay (range, 0-1.0 s). RESULTS: The tracking error and duty cycle averaged for all 23 patients was 1.9 +/- 0.8 mm and 92% +/- 5%, 1.9 +/- 1.0 mm and 93% +/- 6%, and 1.8 +/- 0.7 mm and 92% +/- 6% for the free, audio-guided, and audiovisual-guided breathing, respectively, for a time delay of 0.35 s. The small differences in both the tracking error and the duty cycle with guided breathing were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: DRRT by its nature adapts well to variations in breathing frequency, which is also the motivation for guided-breathing techniques. Because of this redundancy, guided breathing does not result in significant improvements for either the tracking error or the duty cycle when DRRT is used for real-time tumor tracking.
PURPOSE: To evaluate the usefulness of guided breathing for dose rate-regulated tracking (DRRT), a new technique to compensate for intrafraction tumor motion. METHODS AND MATERIALS: DRRT uses a preprogrammed multileaf collimator sequence that tracks the tumor motion derived from four-dimensional computed tomography and the corresponding breathing signals measured before treatment. Because the multileaf collimator speed can be controlled by adjusting the dose rate, the multileaf collimator positions are adjusted in real time during treatment by dose rate regulation, thereby maintaining synchrony with the tumor motion. DRRT treatment was simulated with free, audio-guided, and audiovisual-guided breathing signals acquired from 23 lung cancerpatients. The tracking error and duty cycle for each patient were determined as a function of the system time delay (range, 0-1.0 s). RESULTS: The tracking error and duty cycle averaged for all 23 patients was 1.9 +/- 0.8 mm and 92% +/- 5%, 1.9 +/- 1.0 mm and 93% +/- 6%, and 1.8 +/- 0.7 mm and 92% +/- 6% for the free, audio-guided, and audiovisual-guided breathing, respectively, for a time delay of 0.35 s. The small differences in both the tracking error and the duty cycle with guided breathing were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: DRRT by its nature adapts well to variations in breathing frequency, which is also the motivation for guided-breathing techniques. Because of this redundancy, guided breathing does not result in significant improvements for either the tracking error or the duty cycle when DRRT is used for real-time tumor tracking.
Authors: Paul J Keall; Amit Sawant; Byungchul Cho; Dan Ruan; Junqing Wu; Per Poulsen; Jay Petersen; Laurence J Newell; Herbert Cattell; Stine Korreman Journal: Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys Date: 2010-07-07 Impact factor: 7.038