Program Information

MRI Based, Daily Adaptive Radiotherapy for Rectal Cancer: Contour Adaptation

J Kleijnen*, M Burbach , T Verbraeken , R Weggers , A Zoetelief , O Reerink , J Lagendijk , B Raaymakers , B Asselen , University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Presentations

SU-E-J-153 Sunday 3:00PM - 6:00PM Room: Exhibit Hall

Purpose:
A major hurdle in adaptive radiotherapy is the adaptation of the planning MRI's delineations to the daily anatomy. We therefore investigate the accuracy and time needed for online clinical target volume (CTV) adaptation by radiation therapists (RTT), to be used in MRI-guided adaptive treatments on a MRI-Linac (MRL).

Methods:
Sixteen patients, diagnosed with early stage rectal cancer, underwent a T2-weighted MRI prior to each fraction of short-course radiotherapy, resulting in 4-5 scans per patient. On these scans, the CTV was delineated according to guidelines by an experienced radiation oncologist (RO) and considered to be the gold standard.
For each patient, the first MRI was considered as the planning MRI and matched on bony anatomy to the 3-4 daily MRIs. The planning MRI's CTV delineation was rigidly propagated to the daily MRI scans as a proposal for adaptation. Three RTTs in training started the adaptation of the CTV conform guidelines, after a two hour training lecture and a two patient (n=7) training set.
To assess the inter-therapist variation, all three RTTs altered delineations of 3 patients (n=12). One RTT altered the CTV delineations (n=53) of the remaining 11 patients. Time needed for adaptation of the CTV to guidelines was registered.
As a measure of agreement, the conformity index (CI) was determined between the RTTs' delineations as a group. Dice similarity coefficients were determined between delineations of the RTT and the RO.

Results:
We found good agreement between RTTs' and RO's delineations (average Dice=0.91, SD=0.03). Furthermore, the inter-observer agreement between the RTTs was high (average CI=0.94, SD=0.02). Adaptation time reduced from 10:33 min (SD= 3:46) to 2:56 min (SD=1:06) between the first and last ten delineations, respectively.

Conclusion:
Daily CTV adaptation by RTTs, seems a feasible and safe way to introduce daily, online MRI-based plan adaptation for a MRL.

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