MapRT

The published evidence suggests that while VMAT treatments give good dosimetry, non-coplanar VMAT treatments can yield even better results, for example in lung cancer ^[1],[2],[3], breast cancer ^[4],[5],[6], and head / neck cancer^[7],[8],[9].

[1] Kim ST, An HJ, Kim JI, Yoo JR, Kim HJ, Park JM. Non-coplanar VMAT plans for lung SABR to reduce dose to the heart: a planning study. Br J Radiol. 2020 Jan;93(1105):20190596. doi: 10.1259/bjr.20190596. Epub 2019 Oct 22. PMID: 31625759; PMCID: PMC6948076..

[2] Sheng K, Cao M, Godley A, Lin MH, Henze L, Hammond L, Delombaerde L, Hierholz K, Kouptsidis J. Quantification of Dosimetry Improvement With or Without Patient Surface Guidance. Adv Radiat Oncol. 2024 Jul 14;9(9):101570. doi: 10.1016/j.adro.2024.101570. PMID: 39188998; PMCID: PMC11345286.

[3] Lincoln JD, MacDonald RL, Syme A, Thomas CG. Static couch non-coplanar arc selection optimization for lung SBRT treatment planning. Phys Med Biol. 2023 Jul 21;68(15). doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/ace23f. PMID: 37369237.

[4] J, F., et al. (2023). Locoregional breast radiotherapy including IMN: optimizing the dose distribution using an automated non-coplanar VMAT-technique. Acta oncologica (Stockholm, Sweden), [online] 62(10). doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/0284186X.2023.2264488.

[5] Xu, Y., Ma, P., Hu, Z., Tian, Y., Men, K., Wang, S., Xu, Y. and Dai, J. (2021). Non-coplanar volumetric modulated arc therapy for locoregional radiotherapy of left-sided breast cancer including internal mammary nodes. Radiology and Oncology, 55(4), pp.499–507. doi:https://doi.org/10.2478/raon-2021-0045.

[6] A, B., et al. (2023). Dosimetric Comparision of Coplanar versus Noncoplanar Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy for Treatment of Bilateral Breast Cancers. Journal of medical physics, [online] 48(3). doi:https://doi.org/10.4103/jmp.jmp_36_23.

[7] Biau J, Lopez L, Thivat E, Casile M, Millardet C, Saroul N, Pham-Dang N, Molnar I, Bourhis J, Lapeyre M. Postoperative SBRT in the treatment of early-stage oropharyngeal and oral cavity cancers with high-risk margins: A dosimetric comparison of volumetric modulated arc therapy with or without non-coplanar arcs and acute toxicity outcomes from the STEREOPOSTOP GORTEC 2017-03 phase 2 trial. Clin Transl Radiat Oncol. 2022 Nov 14;38:169-174. doi: 10.1016/j.ctro.2022.11.007. PMID: 36466746; PMCID: PMC9712819.

[8] Woods KE, Ma TM, Cook KA, Morris ED, Gao Y, Sheng K, Kishan AU, Hegde JV, Felix C, Basehart V, Narahara K, Shen Z, Tenn S, Steinberg ML, Chin RK, Cao M. A Prospective Phase II Study of Automated Non-Coplanar VMAT for Recurrent Head and Neck Cancer: Initial Report of Feasibility, Safety, and Patient-Reported Outcomes. Cancers (Basel). 2022 Feb 14;14(4):939. doi: 10.3390/cancers14040939. PMID: 35205686; PMCID: PMC8870161.

[9] Gayen S, Kombathula SH, Manna S, Varshney S, Pareek P. Dosimetric comparison of coplanar and non-coplanar volumetric-modulated arc therapy in head and neck cancer treated with radiotherapy. Radiat Oncol J. 2020 Jun;38(2):138-147. doi: 10.3857/roj.2020.00143. Epub 2020 May 26. PMID: 33012157; PMCID: PMC7533406.

Capturing the entire patient and accessory surface during simulation typically takes 1-2 minutes. Some of the recent MapRT work has shown clinically meaningful plan improvements with a 30 second increase in treatment time. MapRT may be useful in changing beam order to save time, may help avoid the need for physical clearance checks, and with the new API, enables clinics to create scripts to save even more time.

MapRT is a very new technology but one paper, showing marked improvements in planning performance, is available here, as well as on our evidence page. Many users around the world are available to consult on the value of MapRT – contact Vision RT if you’d like us to arrange a reference site call.