title: A survey of stereotactic body radiotherapy use in the United States.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is a technique used to deliver high, ablative doses of radiation in a limited number of fractions to ≥ 1 extracranial target(s). To the authors' knowledge, the prevalence of SBRT use among radiation oncologists in the United States is unknown.
  
  
  METHODS
  A random sample of 1600 American radiation oncologists was surveyed via e-mail and facsimile (fax) regarding SBRT usage, including year of adoption, motivations, disease sites treated, and common prescriptions used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 1373 contactable physicians, 551 responses (40.1%) were received. The percentage of physicians using SBRT was 63.9% (95% confidence interval, 60%-68%), of whom nearly half adopted it in 2008 or later. The most commonly cited reasons for adopting SBRT were to allow the delivery of higher than conventional radiation doses (90.3%) and to allow retreatment (73.9%) in select patients. Academic physicians were more likely to report research as a motivation for SBRT adoption, whereas physicians in private practice were more likely to list competitive reasons. Among SBRT users, the most common disease sites treated were lung (89.3%), spine (67.5%), and liver (54.5%) tumors. Overall, 76.0% of current SBRT users planned to increase their use, whereas 66.5% of nonusers planned to adopt the technology in the future.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  SBRT has rapidly become a widely adopted treatment approach among American radiation oncologists. Further research and prospective trials are necessary to assess the benefits and risks of this novel technology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Center for Advanced Radiotherapy Technologies, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
authors.forename: Hubert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Daniel R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: Loren K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Mell
authors.forename: Arno J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Mundt
authors.forename: Joshua D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Lawson
mesh_terms: D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D016634:Radiosurgery / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States