Purpose-Sparing the hippocampus during cranial irradiation poses important technical challenges with respect to contouring and treatment planning. Herein, we report our preliminary experience with whole-brain radiotherapy using hippocampal sparing for patients with brain metastases.Materials/Methods-5 anonymous patients previously treated with whole-brain radiotherapy with hippocampal sparing were reviewed. The hippocampus was contoured, and hippocampal avoidance regions were created using a 5mm volumetric expansion around the hippocampus. Helical tomotherapy and LINAC-based IMRT treatment plans were generated for a prescription dose of 30 Gy in 10 fractions.Results-On average, the hippocampal avoidance volume was 3.3 cm 3 , occupying 2.1% of the whole brain planned target volume. Helical tomotherapy spared the hippocampus, with a median dose of 5.5 Gy and maximum dose of 12.8 Gy. LINAC-based IMRT spared the hippocampus, with a median dose of 7.8 Gy and maximum dose of 15.3 Gy. On a per-fraction basis, mean dose to the hippocampus (normalized to 2-Gy fractions) was reduced by 87% to 0.49 Gy 2 using helical tomotherapy and by 81% to 0.73 Gy 2 using LINAC-based IMRT. Target coverage and © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Conflicts of Interest

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Target-tracking techniques can be categorized based on the mechanism of the feedback loop. In real time tracking, breathing-delivery phase correlation is provided to the treatment delivery hardware. Clinical implementation of target tracking in real time requires major hardware modifications. In breathing synchronized delivery (BSD), the patient is guided to breathe in accordance with target motion derived from four-dimensional computed tomography (4D-CT). Violations of mechanical limitations of hardware are to be avoided at the treatment planning stage. Hardware modifications are not required. In this article, using sliding window IMRT delivery as an example, we have described step-by-step the implementation of target tracking by the BSD technique: (1) A breathing guide is developed from patient's normal breathing pattern. The patient tries to reproduce this guiding cycle by following the display in the goggles; (2) 4D-CT scans are acquired at all the phases of the breathing cycle; (3) The average tumor trajectory is obtained by deformable image registration of 4D-CT datasets and is smoothed by Fourier filtering; (4) Conventional IMRT planning is performed using the images at reference phase (full exhalation phase) and a leaf sequence based on optimized fluence map is generated; (5) Assuming the patient breathes with a reproducible breathing pattern and the machine maintains a constant dose rate, the treatment process is correlated with the breathing phase; (6) The instantaneous average tumor displacement is overlaid on the dMLC position at corresponding phase; and (7) DMLC leaf speed and acceleration are evaluated to ensure treatment delivery. A custom-built mobile phantom driven by a computer-controlled stepper motor was used in the dosimetry verification. A stepper motor was programmed such that the phantom moved according to the linear component of tumor motion used in BSD treatment planning. A conventional plan was delivered on the phantom with and without motion. The BSD plan was also delivered on the phantom that moved with the prescheduled pattern and synchronized with the delivery of each beam. Film dosimetry showed underdose and overdose in the superior and inferior regions of the target, respectively, if the tumor motion is not compensated during the delivery. BSD delivery resulted in a dose distribution very similar to the planned treatments.

During the last decade, there has been an explosion of new radiation therapy planning and delivery tools. We went through a rapid transition from conventional three-dimensional (3D) conformal radiation therapy to intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatments, and additional new techniques for motion-adaptive radiation therapy are being introduced. These advances push the frontiers in our effort to provide better patient care; and with the addition of IMRT, temporal dimensions are major challenges for the radiotherapy patient dosimetry and delivery verification. Advanced techniques are less tolerant to poor implementation than are standard techniques. Mis-administrations are more difficult to detect and can possibly lead to poor outcomes for some patients. Instead of presenting a manual on quality assurance for radiation therapy, this manuscript provides an overview of dosimetry verification tools and a focused discussion on breath holding, respiratory gating and the applications of four-dimensional computed tomography in motion management. Some of the major challenges in the above areas are discussed.