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Treatment efficiency of volumetric modulated arc therapy in comparison with intensity-modulated radiotherapy in the treatment of prostate cancer. J Am Coll Radiol 2013 Feb;10(2):128-34

Date

12/19/2012

Pubmed ID

23245437

DOI

10.1016/j.jacr.2012.06.014

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-84928096449 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   16 Citations

Abstract

PURPOSE: Treatment with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is increasingly standard for prostate cancer. Volume-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) to deliver IMRT potentially enables shorter treatment time. The aim of this study was to test this hypothesis by measuring the average patient in-room time with VMAT versus dynamic multileaf collimator (DMLC) IMRT.

METHODS: Custom institutional software (RTMetrix) was used to mine the treatment times from the record-and-verify database. The in-room time (the time between patient entry and exit) was computed for each patient using RTMetrix. Average room time was compared between VMAT patients (n = 44) and IMRT patients (n = 99). Subgroup comparisons (1-arc or 2-arc VMAT, 5-field or 7-field IMRT, and electromagnetic transponder [Calypso] or gold-marker tracking) were performed. For all comparisons, 2-tailed, 2-sample, equal variance Student's t-tests were used.

RESULTS: Average room time was significantly shorter for all VMAT versus DMLC IMRT (P = .0014) procedures, along with VMAT versus 7-field DMLC IMRT (P < .001), but not VMAT versus 5-field DMLC IMRT (P = .81). Room time was longer for Calypso versus gold seed patients (P < .001), but VMAT reduced treatment time in Calypso patients (P = .01). This resulted in Calypso VMAT patients' having similar treatment times to non-Calypso DMLC IMRT patients (P = .220).

CONCLUSIONS: These data show that VMAT can shorten room times and improve patient throughput over 7-field DMLC IMRT. Additionally, the data demonstrate that treatment with VMAT permits the use of advanced prostate tracking (Calypso), resulting in similar room times as with standard 7-field DMLC IMRT with conventional tracking.

Author List

Hall WA, Fox TH, Jiang X, Prabhu RS, Rossi PJ, Godette K, Jani AB

Author

William Adrian Hall MD Professor in the Radiation Oncology department at Medical College of Wisconsin




MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Georgia
Humans
Male
Prostatic Neoplasms
Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated
Time Factors
Workload