Whole-brain radiation therapy without a thermoplastic mask

• Published in: Physics and imaging in radiation oncology Vol. 11; pp. 27 - 29
• Main Authors: Dekker, Janita, Rozema, Tom, Böing-Messing, Florian, Garcia, Martha, Washington, Deniece, de Kruijf, Willy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.07.2019; Elsevier
• Subjects: Intra-fractional motion; Optical surface scanning; Real-time monitoring; Short Communication; Whole-brain radiation therapy; Whole-brain radiation therapy; Optical surface scanning; Real-time monitoring; Intra-fractional motion
• ISSN: 2405-6316; 2405-6316
• DOI: 10.1016/j.phro.2019.07.004

•Surface scanning is used for positioning and for intra-fractional motion monitoring.•Patients are able to lie still below a threshold of 3 mm.•A limited number of repositioning procedures per fraction was needed.•Two lateral fields with a CTV-PTV margin of 5 mm were used for WBRT without a mask. The aim of the study was to investigate the clinical feasibility of whole-brain radiation therapy without a thermoplastic mask. Positioning and intra-fractional motion monitoring were performed using optical surface scanning. The motion threshold was 3 mm/3 degrees. The group mean vector deviation was 1.1 mm. The roll was larger compared to pitch and rotation. Two patients out of 30 were not able to lie still. All other patients completed their treatment successfully without a mask. With a probability of success of 93%, we concluded that irradiation without a mask is a clinically feasible method.