A NEW APPROACH IN THE DETERMINATION OF PATIENT'S REFERENCE POINT IN CONFORMAL EXTERNAL RADIOTHERAPY

摘要

Our study involves mainly patient's immobilization and imaging in conformal radiotherapy process. The goal is the accurate automatic determination of the patient's reference point in regard to table coordinates, which is very important for the successful execution of the whole treatment, as patient's set up must be literally maintained between imaging and treatment phase. The significance of the determination of the reference point, emerge in the treatment phase for the accurate transfer of the planned irradiation technique to the patient. The determination of RP to table coordinates is based mainly on detection of markers on patient's skin and in table in a DICOM image, generated during the imaging process. The results are compared with the same results acquired manually by a tape measure and by the use of commercial software for 3D simulation of external beam radiation therapy.