Introduction: Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) provides an excellent solution to quantitative assessment and correction of patient set-up errors during radiotherapy. However, most linear accelerators are equipped with conventional therapy tables that can be moved in three translational directions and perform only yaw rotation. Uncorrected roll and pitch result in rotational set-up errors, particularly when the distance from the isocenter to the target border is large. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of rotational errors on the dose delivered to the clinical target volume (CTV), the planning target volume (PTV) and organs at risk (OAR).
Material and methods: 30 patients with prostate cancer treated with VMAT technique had daily CBCT scans (840 CBCTs in total) prior to treatment delivery. The rotational errors remaining after on-line correction were retrospectively analysed. The sum plans simulating the dose distribution during the treatment course were calculated for selected patients with significant rotational errors.
Results: The dose delivered to the prostate bed CTV reported in the sum plan was not lower than in the original plan for all selected patients. For four patients from the selected group, the D98% for prostate bed PTV was less than 95%. The V47.88Gy for pelvic lymph nodes PTV was less than 98% for two of the selected patients.
Conclusions: The analysis of the dosimetric parameters showed that the impact of uncorrected rotations is not clinically significant in terms of the dose delivered to OAR and the dose coverage of CTV. However, the PTV dose coverage is correlated with distance away from the isocenter and is smaller than planned.
