From IMRT to IGRT: frontierland or neverland?
The recent enthusiasm for real-time image guidance in radiotherapy (IGRT) is in part due to the commercial availability of advanced on-line imaging technologies. Perhaps more important than its potential to improve conventional radiotherapy, IGRT may lead to a paradigm shift in facilitating hypo-fractionated or single-dose treatment. However, there are uncertainty regarding features and approaches of competing IGRT systems and as to whether a sub-set of the features of an ideal IGRT system would suffice for specific disease sites and clinical applications. Clinical studies are necessary for the quantification of benefit needed for evidence-based medicine.
Ling
C Clifton
CC
Department of Medical Physics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA. lingc@mskcc.org
Yorke
Ellen
E
Fuks
Zvi
Z
D019583:Dose Fractionation, Radiation; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy; D009862:Online Systems; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted; D011881:Radiotherapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D020266:Radiotherapy, Conformal; D050397:Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated / Q000379:methods*; D013679:Technology, Radiologic; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome