Cyberknife Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation

Project summary

Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI) is a new treatment option for early-stage breast cancer patients after breast-conserving surgery. The advantages of APBI are a shorter treatment course and a smaller irradiated volume, with less risk of long-term toxicities. In radiotherapy, there is a safety margin used for geometric uncertainties of treatment delivery. The geometric uncertainty of APBI delivered with the Cyberknife is unknown. The Cyberknife uses fiducials for real-time tracking of the target during treatment delivery. It is unknown what the optimal type of fiducial is, with the smallest uncertainty and highest patient comfort.

The first objective is to quantify the geometric uncertainty of CK-APBI and propose a validated margin to compensate for this uncertainty. The second objective is to compare different types of fiducials for real-time tracking with respect to geometric uncertainty and patient comfort. The three types of fiducials are interstitial gold markers, surgical clips and superficial skin gold markers.

Type the project impact here.