title: Stereotactic radiosurgery: dose-volume analysis of linear accelerator techniques.
abstract: Stereotactic radiosurgery of the brain may be accomplished with a linear accelerator by performing several noncoplanar arcs of a highly collimated beam focused at a point. The shape of the radiation distribution produced by this technique is affected by the beam energy, field size, and the number and size of the arcs. The influence of these parameters on the resulting radiation distributions was analyzed by computing dose volume histograms for a typical brain. Dose volume functions were computed for: (a) the energy range of 4-24 MV x rays; (b) target sizes of 1-4 cm; and (c) 1-11 arcs and dynamic rotation. The dose volume histograms were found to be dependent on the number of arcs for target sizes of 1-4 cm. However, these differences were minimal for techniques with 4 arcs or more. The influence of beam energy on the dose volume histogram was also found to be minimal.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Treatment Center, Baptist Hospital of Miami, Florida 33176.
authors.forename: C F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Serago
authors.forename: P V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Houdek
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bauer-Kirpes
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Lewin
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Abitbol
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gonzalez-Arias
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Marcial-Vega
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Schwade
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006801:Humans; D010315:Particle Accelerators; D016634:Radiosurgery / Q000379:methods*; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*