The efficacy of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) has been well demonstrated. However, it presents unique challenges for accurate planning and delivery especially in the lungs and upper abdomen where respiratory motion can be significantly confounding accurate targeting and avoidance of normal tissues. In this paper we review the current literature on SBRT for lung and upper abdominal tumors with particular emphasis on addressing respiratory motion and its affects. We provide recommendations on strategies to manage motion for different, patient specific situations. Some of the recommendations will potentially be adopted to guide clinical trial protocols.

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Respiratory-gated treatment techniques have been introduced into the radiation oncology practice to manage target or organ motions. This paper will review the implementation of this type of gated treatment technique where the respiratory cycle is determined using an external marker. The external marker device is placed on the abdominal region between the xyphoid process and the umbilicus of the patient. An infrared camera tracks the motion of the marker to generate a surrogate for the respiratory cycle. The relationship, if any, between the respiratory cycle and the movement of the target can be complex. The four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) scanner is used to identify this motion for those patients that meet three requirements for the successful implementation of respiratory-gated treatment technique for radiation therapy. These requirements are (a) the respiratory cycle must be periodic and maintained during treatment, (b) the movement of the target must be related to the respiratory cycle, and (c) the gating window can be set sufficiently large to minimise the overall treatment time or increase the duty cycle and yet small enough to be within the gate. If the respiratory-gated treatment technique is employed, the end-expiration image set is typically used for treatment planning purposes because this image set represents the phase of the respiratory cycle where the anatomical movement is often the least for the longest time. Contouring should account for tumour residual motion, setup uncertainty, and also allow for deviation from the expected respiratory cycle during treatment. Respiratory-gated intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment plans must also be validated prior to treatment. Quality assurance should be performed to check for positional changes and the output in association with the motion-gated technique. To avoid potential treatment errors, radiation therapist (radiographer) should be regularly in-serviced and made aware of the need to invoke the gating feature when prescribed for selected patients.

The interplay between a mobile target and a dynamic multileaf collimator can compromise the accuracy of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Our goal in this study is to investigate the dosimetric effects caused by the respiratory motion during IMRT. A moving phantom was built to simulate the typical breathing motion. Different sizes of the gating windows were selected for gated deliveries. The residual motions during the beam-on period ranged from 0.5 to 3 cm. An IMRT plan with five treatment fields from different gantry angles were delivered to the moving phantom for three irradiation conditions: Stationary condition, moving with the use of gating system, and moving without the use of gating system. When the residual motion was 3 cm, the results showed significant differences in dose distributions between the stationary condition and the moving phantom without gating beam control. The overdosed or underdosed areas enclosed about 33% of the treatment area. In contrast, the dose distribution on the moving phantom with gating window set to 0.5 cm showed no significant differences from the stationary phantom. With the appropriate setting of the gating window, the deviation of dose from the respiratory motion can be minimized. It appeals that limiting the residual motion to less than 0.5 cm is critical for the treatments of mobile structures.

Primary breast irradiation with tangential IMRT technique significantly reduces the dose to the contralateral breast compared to conventional tangential field techniques.