Publicaties

PURPOSE: To compare dose distributions and robustness in treatment plans from eight European centres in preparation for the European randomized phase-III PROTECT-trial investigating the effect of proton therapy (PT) versus photon therapy (XT) for oesophageal cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All centres optimized one PT and one XT nominal plan using delineated 4DCT scans for four patients receiving 50.4 Gy (RBE) in 28 fractions. Target volume ...

We report on a dosimetrical study comparing supine (S) and prone-crawl (P) position for radiotherapy of whole breast (WB) and loco-regional lymph node regions, including the internal mammary chain (LN_IM). Six left sided breast cancer patients were CT-simulated in S and P positions and four patients only in P position. Treatment plans were made using non-coplanar volumetric modulated arc photon therapy (VMAT) or pencil beam scanning intensity ...

To evaluate the uncertainties and characteristics of radiochromic film-based dosimetry system using the EBT3 model Gafchromic(®) film in therapy photon, electron and proton beams.

PURPOSE: Treatment-related toxicity after irradiation of brain tumours has been underreported in the literature. Furthermore, there is considerable heterogeneity on how and when toxicity is evaluated. The aim of this European Particle Network (EPTN) collaborative project is to develop recommendations for uniform follow-up and toxicity scoring of adult brain tumour patients treated with radiotherapy. METHODS: A Delphi method-based consensus was ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy (IMPT) faces challenges in lung cancer treatment, like maintaining plan robustness for moving tumors against setup, range errors, and interplay effects. Proton Arc Therapy (PAT) is an alternative to maintain target coverage, potentially improving organ at risk (OAR) sparing, reducing beam delivery time (BDT), and enhancing patient experience. We aim to perform a systematic plan ...

The lack of mailed dosimetry audits of proton therapy centres in Europe has encouraged researchers of EURADOS Working Group 9 (WG9) to compare response of several existing passive detector systems in therapeutic pencil beam scanning. Alanine Electron Paramagnetic Resonance dosimetry systems from 3 different institutes (ISS, Italy; UH, Belgium and IFJ PAN, Poland), natLiF:Mg, Ti (MTS-N) and natLiF:Mg, Cu, P (MCP-N) thermoluminescent dosimeters ...

Quality control of therapeutic photon beams in the form of postal dose audits based on passive dosemeters is widely used in photon radiotherapy. On the other hand, no standardised dosimetry audit programme for proton centres has been established in Europe so far. We evaluated alanine/EPR dosimetry systems developed at the Istituto Superiore di Sanita (Italy), the Hasselt Universiteit (Belgium) and the Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear ...

The quality of radiation therapy has been shown to significantly influence the outcomes for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients. The results of dosimetric studies suggest that intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) could be of added value for HNSCC by being more effective than intensity-modulated (photon) radiation therapy (IMRT) for reducing side effects of radiation ther-apy. However, the physical properties of protons ...

Objective.Protons offer a more conformal dose delivery compared to photons, yet they are sensitive to anatomical changes over the course of treatment. To minimize range uncertainties due to anatomical variations, a new CT acquisition at every treatment session would be paramount to enable daily dose calculation and subsequent plan adaptation. However, the series of CT scans results in an additional accumulated patient dose. Reducing CT radiation ...