A comprehensive evaluation of treatment accuracy, including end-to-end tests and clinical data, applied to intracranial stereotactic radiotherapy

Abstract Background and purpose A methodology is presented to quantify the uncertainty associated with linear accelerator-based frameless intracranial stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) combining end-to-end phantom tests and clinical data. Methods and materials The following steps of the SRT chain were analysed: planning computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) scans registration, target volume delineation, CT and cone beam CT (CBCT) registration and intrafraction-patient displacement. The overall accuracy was established with an end-to-end test. The measured uncertainties were combined, deriving the total systematic (Σ_T) and random (σ_T) error components, to estimate the GTV-PTV margin. Results The uncertainty in the MR-CT registration was on average 0.40 mm (averaged over AP, CC and LR directions). Rotational variations were smaller than 0.5°in all directions. Interobser variation in GTV delineation was on average 0.29 mm. The uncertainty in the CBCT-CT registration was on average 0.15 mm. Again, rotational variations were smaller than 0.5°in all directions. The systematic and random intrafraction displacement errors were on average 0.55 mm and 0.45 mm, respectively. The systematic and random positional errors from the end-to-end test were on average 0.49 mm and 0.53 mm, respectively. Combining these uncertainties resulted in an average Σ_T = 0.9 mm and σ_T = 0.7 mm and an average GTV-PTV margin of 2.8 mm. Conclusion This comprehensive methodology including end-to-end tests enabled a GTV-PTV margin calculation considering all sources of uncertainties. This generic method can also be used for other treatment sites.