Impact of the "Belly Board" Device on Treatment Reproducibility in Preoperative Radiotherapy for Rectal Cancer

Abstract

Our data show that, in patients treated prone for rectal cancer, the use of the BBD in the preoperative setting without immobilization devices was associated with problems of patient position reproducibility, particularly for the antero-posterior direction. Thus, the use of patient immobilization devices and/or individual custom-made BBD may be recommended if a decision to treat the patient with a BBD is taken.

Risk factors related to interfractional variation in whole pelvic irradiation for locally advanced pelvic malignancies

“…The present study showing the inconsistent tendency along the axes did not allow a conclusion on the relationship with the interfractional variations and the set-up position to be drawn. A study on the prone set-up applied to the belly board showed that the amplitude of the displacement along the z-axis was significantly greater as in the present study [2].…”

Recurrent Rectal Cancer within the Pelvis

“…Many of the studies reporting on pelvic recurrence patterns have some limitations; they are either outdated or do not give exact anatomic information of the location of recurrent tumors within the pelvis or just simply cover a very large timespan within which changes in therapy very likely will have happened, thus compromising the ability to make their results a basis for recommendations in definition of planning target volumes in adjuvant radiotherapy [1,2,6,9,13,22,23,27,30,34].…”

Outcome of Postoperative Treatment for Rectal Cancer UICC Stage II and III in Day-to-Day Clinical Practice

“…All clinics used three-or four-field beam arrangements. In most cases the patients were treated in prone position on the "belly board" [1]. In all institutions, RT consisted of two series: in a first series, a standard volume was irradiated including the tumor bed and pelvic lymphatic drainage (cranial field border L4/5 or L5/S1, caudal field border middle third of obturator foramen after LAR or including the perineum after APR).…”