Comparative proton versus photon treatment planning for the Medicare Medical Treatment Overseas Program: The Royal Adelaide Hospital experience

摘要

Introduction Australia's first proton beam therapy (PBT) service, The Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy and Research, is scheduled to open in the near future providing PBT for patients closer to home. Patients currently access Commonwealth funding for PBT via the Medicare Medical Treatment Overseas Program (MTOP). Proton versus photon treatment planning is a pre-requisite for the MTOP application. The Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) Department of Radiation Oncology has been providing this since 2016. We aim to provide a descriptive overview of our proton versus photon treatment planning process, presenting a summary of the comparative planning results and the treatment pathways selected for the patients referred.