7,307 research outputs found
Treatment Planning for Challenging Anatomies
No full textTreatment planning procedures are set up to obtain optimised dose distributions for the “average” patient. Whereas with individualisation of treatment planning a good compromise between dose objectives for the target volumes and dose constraints for the organs at risk can be obtained, some clinical cases demand creative and highly individualised approaches, especially in cases with challenging anatomies. In this section, we provide you with a few such examples, without the ambition to being exhaustive
Follow-Up During Treatment
No full textIn the following section we discuss the rationale for a follow-up schedule for breast cancer patients during a radiation course, with regard to various treatment protocols
Management and Workflow
No full textRadiation therapy (RT) is an important modality of breast cancer patients, regardless of disease stage. In breast cancer, in addition to curative indications, RT is a major modality for palliation or symptom control and, recently, used as an ablative non-invasive treatment to oligometastatic patients or in case of oligo-progression. New RT techniques and protocols (limited number of fractions) allow for minimal morbidity and minimal interference with quality of life (QOL) and other cancer treatments. There are a number of RT techniques, and different RT doses and fractionation, which are used according to the clinical indication. In some cases, concomitant treatment of systemic therapy and RT is indicated. However, RT is a complex modality, and there is a need for a multidisciplinary team of radiation oncologists, nurses, radiation technicians, dosimetrists and physicists to plan and apply treatments. These new indications for RT, together with the global increase in cancer incidence and higher need for RT, put much higher demands on efficient treatment management and workflow. Therefore, this section will discuss workflow adjustment and optimisation processes and give additionally some practical hints that are based on experience at several radiation oncology departments
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