Clinical Development and Evaluation of Megavoltage Topogram for Fast Patient Alignment on Helical Tomotherapy

X. Sharon Qi, Fang I. Chu, Zhe Zhang, Robert K. Chin, Ann Raldow, Amar U. Kishan, Percy Lee, Albert Chang, Anusha Kalbasi, Mitchell Kamrava, Michael L. Steinberg, Daniel A. Low

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Purpose: To develop and evaluate a fast patient localization tool using megavoltage (MV)-topogram on helical tomotherapy. Methods and Materials: Eighty-one MV-topogram pairs for 18 pelvis patients undergoing radiation were acquired weekly under an institutional review board–approved clinical trial. The MV-topogram imaging protocol requires 2 orthogonal acquisitions at static gantry angles of 0 degrees and 90 degrees for a programed scan length. A MATLAB based in-house software was developed to reconstruct the MV-topograms offline. Reference images (digitally reconstructed topograms, digitally reconstructed topograms) were generated using the planning computed tomography and tomotherapy geometry. The MV-topogram based alignment was determined by registering the MV-topograms to the digitally reconstructed topogram using bony landmark on commercial MIM software. The daily shifts in 3 translational directions determined from MV-topograms were compared with the megavoltage computed tomography (MVCT) based patient shifts. Linear-regression and two one-sided tests equivalence tests were performed to investigate the relation and equivalence between the 2 techniques. Seventy-eight MV-topogram pairs for 19 head and neck patients were included to validate the finding. Results: The magnitudes of alignment differences of (MVCT − MV-topogram) (and standard deviations) were −0.3 ± 2.1, −0.8 ± 2.4, and 1.6 ± 1.7 mm for pelvis and 0.6 ± 1.2, 0.8 ± 4.2, 1.6 ± 2.6 mm for head and neck; the linear-regression coefficients between 2 imaging techniques were 1.18, 1.10, 0.94, and 0.86, 0.63, 0.38 in the lateral, longitudinal, vertical directions for pelvis and head and neck, respectively. The acquisition time for a pair of MV-topograms was up to 12.7 times less than MVCT scans (coarse scan mode) while covering longer longitudinal length. Conclusions: MV-topograms showed equivalent clinical performance to the standard MVCT with significantly less acquisition time for pelvis and H&N patients. The MV-topogram can be used as an alternative or complimentary tool for bony landmark-based patient alignment on tomotherapy.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1334-1341
Number of pages8
JournalAdvances in Radiation Oncology
Volume5
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1 2020
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

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