WE‐A‐BRD‐01: Locating and Targeting Moving Tumors with Radiation Beams

Abstract

The current climate of rapid technological evolution is reflected in newer and better methods to modulate and direct radiation beams for cancer therapy. This Continuing Education lecture focuses on one aspect of this evolution, locating and targeting moving tumors. The two processes — locating and targeting tumors— are somewhat independent and in principle different implementations of these processes can be interchanged. Advanced localization and targeting methods have an impact on treatment planning, and also present new challenges for quality assurance (QA), that of verifying real‐time delivery. Some methods to locate and target moving tumors with radiation beams are currently FDA approved for clinical use — and this availability and implementation will increase with time. Extensions of current capabilities will be the integration of higher order dimensionality into the estimate of the patient pose and real‐time reoptimization and adaption of delivery to the dynamically changing anatomy of cancer patients.Learning Objectives:1. To describe the technology available to determine real‐time target position2. To review the systems for real‐time target‐beam alignment3. To discuss the practical considerations of real‐time target tracking systemsResearch sponsored by Accuray, Calypso, Cyberheart, GE, NIH/NCI, Philips and Varian.