title: Medical physics principles of radiosurgery.
abstract: Beside basic physical notions such as ionizing radiation, beam production and beam characteristics, this chapter will focus on two major principles that should always be considered in a radiosurgery procedure: conformity and selectivity. Those parameters are influenced by different physical beam properties, by the type of beam delivery device and by the way the dose is delivered. Conformity and selectivity should be evaluated for each treatment with the help of some specific indices, i.e. target volume ratio and normal volume ratio based on the dose-volume histograms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiophysics, Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Françoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Desmedt
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vanderlinden
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gevaert
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vandekerkhove
authors.forename: Anne-Sophie
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Grell
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Levivier
mesh_terms: D003037:Cobalt Radioisotopes; D006801:Humans; D010315:Particle Accelerators; D018579:Patient Selection; D016634:Radiosurgery / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage
chemical_list: D003037:Cobalt Radioisotopes