Highlights
- •Gamma criterion of 2%/1 mm was sensitive to detect small errors during delivery.
- •No correlation of beam interruption to delivery accuracy of VMAT was observed.
- •Delivery errors were small by beam interruptions during VMAT delivery.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of beam interruptions during delivery
of volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) on delivered dose distributions.
Methods
Ten prostate and ten head and neck (H&N) VMAT plans were retrospectively selected.
Each VMAT plan was delivered using Trilogy™ without beam interruption, and with 4
and 8 intentional beam interruptions per a single arc. Two-dimensional global and
local gamma evaluations with a diode array were performed with gamma criteria of 3%/3 mm,
2%/2 mm, 1%/2 mm and 2%/1 mm for each VMAT plan with and without beam interruptions.
The VMAT plans were reconstructed with log files recorded during delivery and the
dose-volumetric parameters were calculated for each reconstructed plan. The differences
among dose-volumetric parameters due to the beam interruptions were calculated.
Results
The changes in global gamma passing rates with various gamma criteria were less than
1.6% on average, while the changes in local gamma passing rates were less than 5.3%
on average. The dose-volumetric parameter changes for the target volumes of prostate
and H&N VMAT plans due to beam interruptions were less than 0.72% and 1.5% on average,
respectively.
Conclusion
The delivered dose distributions with up to 8 beam interruptions per an arc were clinically
acceptable, showing minimal changes in both gamma passing rates and dose-volumetric
parameters.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 07, 2015
Accepted:
January 23,
2015
Received in revised form:
January 13,
2015
Received:
November 21,
2014
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
