The influence of a six degrees of freedom couch and an individual head support in patient positioning in radiotherapy of head and neck cancer

• Main Authors: Myra F. Rodrigues, Sten Veen, Jaap van Egmond, Mark van Hameren, Theodorus van Oorschot, Steven de Vet, Jan P.C. van Santvoort, Ruud G.J. Wiggenraad, Mirjam E. Mast
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2019-07-01
• Series: Physics and Imaging in Radiation Oncology
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405631619300168
• ISSN: 2405-6316

Reproducible patient positioning is important in radiotherapy (RT) of head-and-neck cancer. We therefore compared set-up errors in head-and-neck RT resulting from three different patient positioning systems. Patients were either treated with a standard head support (SHS) and conventional treatment couch (SHS-3, n = 10), a SHS and rotational couch (SHS-6, n = 10), or an individual head support (IHS) and rotational couch (IHS-6, n = 10). Interfraction mean translation vector lenghts were significantly lower for IHS-6 compared to SHS-3 (0.8 ± 0.3 mm vs. 1.4 ± 0.7 mm, P = 0.001). Intrafraction displacement was comparable among cohorts. This study showed that the use of a six degrees of freedom couch combined with an IHS in head-and-neck RT resulted in better interfraction reproducibility. Keywords: Head-and-neck cancer, Immobilization, Head support, Set-up correction, Six degrees of freedom couch, Cone-beam CT