Advantages of mini-multileaf in stereotactic radiotherapy

Long-term survival with stereotactic radiotherapy for imaging-diagnosed pituitary tumors in dogs

Published studies on the use of stereotactic radiotherapy for dogs with pituitary tumors are limited. This retrospective observational study describes results of stereotactic radiotherapy for 45 dogs with imaging-diagnosed pituitary tumors. All dogs were treated at a single hospital during the period of December 2009-2015. The stereotactic radiotherapy was delivered in one 15 Gray (Gy) fraction or in three 8 Gy fractions. At the time of analysis, 41 dogs were deceased. Four were alive and censored from all survival analyses; one dog received 8 Gy every other day and was removed from protocol analyses. The median overall survival from first treatment was 311 days (95% confidence interval 226-410 days [range 1-2134 days]). Thirty-two dogs received 15 Gy (median overall survival 311 days; 95% confidence interval [range 221-427 days]), and 12 received 24 Gy on three consecutive days (median overall survival 245 days, 95% confidence interval [range 2-626 days]). Twenty-nine dogs had hyperadrenocorticism (median overall survival 245 days), while 16 had nonfunctional masses (median overall survival 626 days). Clinical improvement was reported in 37/45 cases. Presumptive signs of acute adverse effects within 4 months of stereotactic radiotherapy were noted in 10/45, and most had improvement spontaneously or with steroids. Late effects versus tumor progression were not discernable, but posttreatment blindness (2), hypernatremia (2), and progressive neurological signs (31) were reported. There was no statistical difference in median overall survival for different protocols. Patients with nonfunctional masses had longer median overall survival than those with hyperadrenocorticism (P = 0.0003). Survival outcomes with stereotactic radiotherapy were shorter than those previously reported with definitive radiation, especially for dogs with hyperadrenocorticism.

A phantom study to determine the optimum size of a single collimator for shortening the treatment time in CyberKnife stereotactic radiosurgery of spherical targets

Prolonged treatment execution time is a concern in CyberKnife robotic radiosurgery. Beam reduction and node reduction technique, and monitor unit optimization methods are adopted to reduce the treatment time. Usage of single collimator in the CyberKnife treatment plan can potentially reduce collimator exchange time. An optimal single collimator, which yields an acceptable dose distribution along with minimum number of nodes, beams, and monitor units, can be a versatile alternative for shortening treatment time. The aim of the present study is to find the optimal single collimator in CyberKnife treatment planning to shorten the treatment time with the acceptable dose distribution. A spherical planning target volume PTV1 was drawn in an anthropomorphic head and neck phantom. Plans with same treatment goals were generated for all the 12 collimators independently. D95% was selected as the prescribing isodose and the prescribed dose was 10 Gy. The plan of the optimal collimator size was evaluated for conformity, homogeneity, and dose spillage outside the target. The optimum collimator size and the target dimensions were correlated. The study was repeated with two other target volumes PTV2 and PTV3 for generalizing the results. Collimator sizes just above the diameter of the spherical PTVs were yielding least number of nodes and beams with acceptable dose distributions. The collimator size of 35 mm is optimum for the PTV1, whose diameter is 31.4 mm. Similarly, 50 mm collimator is optimum for PTV2 (diameter=45.2 mm) and 20 mm collimator is optimum for PTV3 (Diameter=17.3 mm). The total number of monitor units is found to reduce with increasing collimator size. Optimal single collimator is found to be useful for shortening the treatment time in spherical targets. Studies on two clinical targets, (a brain metastasis and a liver metastasis cases) show comparable results with the phantom study.

PACS numbers: 87.55.D, 87.55.de, 87.53.Ly, 87.55.kh, 87.56.nk, 87.55.ne, 87.55.‐x