Robotic Tumor Tracking Techniques in Radiation Therapy

Abstract

Precise and accurate dose delivery is critically important in external beam radiation therapy. In many cases target-volumes are stationary, but the problem arises when the tumors move significantly. Respiratory and cardiac motions have been found to displace and deform tumors in the lung, pancreas, liver, breast, and other organs. Because of this, radiation oncologists must expand the margin around tumor for radiation therapy. Consequently, a large volume of healthy tissue is irradiated, and critical organs adjacent to the tumor are sometimes difficult to spare. Implementation of the robotic tumor tracking techniques can potentially improve the quality of patient treatment by reducing unnecessary radiation dose to healthy normal tissues and critical structures and thereby lowering the toxicity level and increasing survival. Moreover, unlike gating, robotic tracking and dynamic delivery of radiation dose would be faster and efficacious.