PurposeThis study assessed the delivered dose accuracy in pancreas SBRT by incorporating the real-time target position determined using an in-house position monitoring system.Methods and materialsAn online image-based position monitoring system, SeedTracker, was developed to monitor radiopaque marker positions using monoscopic x-ray images, available from the Elekta XVI imaging system. This system was applied to patients receiving SBRT for pancreatic cancer on the MASTERPLAN Pilot trial (ACTRN 12617001642370). All patients were implanted pre-treatment with at least three peri-tumoral radiopaque markers for target localisation. During treatment delivery, marker positions were compared to expected positions delineated from the planning CT. The position tolerance of ±3mm from the expected position of the markers was set to trigger a gating event (GE) during treatment. The dosimetric impact of position deviations and actual dose delivered with position corrections was assessed by convolving the plan control point dose matrices with temporal target positions determined during treatment.ResultsEight patients were treated within this study. At least one GE was observed in 38% of the treatment fractions and more than one GE was observed in 10% of the fractions. The position deviations resulted in the mean(range) difference of -0.1(-1.1 - 0.4)Gy in minimum dose to tumour and 1.9(-0.1- 4.6)Gy increase to Dmax to duodenum compared to planned dose. In actual treatment delivery with the patient realignment, the mean difference of tumour min dose and duodenal Dmax was reduced to 0.1(-1.0 – 1.1)Gy and 1.1 (-0.7 - 3.3)Gy respectively compared to the planned dose.ConclusionsThe in-house real-time position monitoring system improved the treatment accuracy of pancreatic SBRT in a general-purpose linac and enabled assessment of delivered dose by incorporating the temporal target position during delivery. The intrafraction motion impacts the dose to tumour even if target position is maintained within a 3mm position tolerance.
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