A Multicentre Timing Study of Intensity-modulated Radiotherapy Planning and Delivery
Received 23 October 2009; received in revised form 24 February 2010; accepted 14 June 2010. published online 12 July 2010.
Abstract
Aims
The aim of the study was to measure how long the intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) process takes, both for planning and delivery, using several IMRT techniques and departments.
Materials and methods
Timings were measured at three radiotherapy centres for each step of the process of outlining, planning and delivering IMRT for head and neck cancers. Times were measured for a total of 63 patients; 27 with helical tomotherapy, 37 with dynamic sliding window (26 in one centre, 11 in another) and nine with step-and-shoot.
Results
The mean time to outline a patient was 108min, to produce and check the plan 7.9h, to carry out and analyse patient-specific quality assurance 1.9h. The mean treatment time (including on-treatment verification imaging where carried out), measured gate to gate, was 28min 10s for first fractions and 20min 20s for subsequent fractions.
Conclusion
An analysis of subgroups showed some differences in times between techniques, and some differences between departments with the same techniques. For all four techniques, the median time from the end of outlining to the start of treatment was under 3 weeks.
ABSTRACT