title: A conformal technique for irradiation of pituitary tumors.
abstract: We present a CT/MRI based conformal radiotherapy technique for irradiation of pituitary tumors. In this technique, the patient is treated with three isocentric non-coplanar 18 MV photon beams, with the patient in a natural supine position. The radiation ports are designed based on beam's eye view projections of the CT/MRI delineated target volume. This technique spares, completely from the primary beams, the lenses and retina, and a significant portion of the optic nerves, even for large pituitary tumors. The dose distribution in brain is comparable to coplanar are techniques for standard field sizes (5 x 5 cm2), but superior for larger field sizes (7 x 7 cm2). The beams in the present technique yield a low skin dose by avoiding beam overlap in entrance and exit regions, thus eliminating clinical hair loss. The treatments are easily set-up on the treatment machines, resulting in improved efficiency and accuracy.
authors.affiliation: Marin General Hospital, Greenbrae, CA 94904, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: F E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Halberg
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Torigoe
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D010911:Pituitary Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011881:Radiotherapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D011882:Radiotherapy, High-Energy / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed