Standardizing Normal Tissue Contouring for Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning: An ASTRO Consensus Paper. Pract Radiat Oncol 2019 Mar;9(2):65-72
Date
12/24/2018Pubmed ID
30576843DOI
10.1016/j.prro.2018.12.003Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85061798865 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 49 CitationsAbstract
PURPOSE: The comprehensive identification and delineation of organs at risk (OARs) are vital to the quality of radiation therapy treatment planning and the safety of treatment delivery. This guidance aims to improve the consistency of ontouring OARs in external beam radiation therapy treatment planning by providing a single standardized resource for information regarding specific OARs to be contoured for each disease site. The guidance is organized in table format as a quality assurance tool for practices and a training resource for residents and other radiation oncology students (see supplementary materials).
METHODS AND MATERIALS: The Task Force formulated recommendations based on clinical practice and consensus. The draft manuscript was peer reviewed by 16 reviewers, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) legal counsel, and ASTRO's Multidisciplinary Quality Assurance Subcommittee and revised accordingly. The recommendations were posted on the ASTRO website for public comment in June 2018 for a 6-week period. The final document was approved by the ASTRO Board of Directors in August 2018.
RESULTS: Standardization improves patient safety, efficiency, and accuracy in radiation oncology treatment. This consensus guidance represents an ASTRO quality initiative to provide recommendations for the standardization of normal tissue contouring that is performed during external beam treatment planning for each anatomic treatment site. Table 1 defines 2 sets of structures for anatomic sites: Those that are recommended in all adult definitive cases and may assist with organ selection for palliative cases, and those that should be considered on a case-by-case basis depending on the specific clinical scenario. Table 2 outlines some of the resources available to define the parameters of general OAR tissue delineation.
CONCLUSIONS: Using this paper in conjunction with resources that define tissue parameters and published dose constraints will enable practices to develop a consistent approach to normal tissue evaluation and dose documentation.
Author List
Wright JL, Yom SS, Awan MJ, Dawes S, Fischer-Valuck B, Kudner R, Mailhot Vega R, Rodrigues GAuthor
Musaddiq J. Awan MD Assistant Professor in the Radiation Oncology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
ConsensusHumans
Neoplasms
Organs at Risk
Patient Safety
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Quality Assurance, Health Care
Radiation Injuries
Radiation Oncology
Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted
United States
