Quality improvement in radiation therapy by 3D treatment planning

Performance of 3D treatment planning in the authors´ institution significantly improved the quality of patient radiation therapy. Here, four different type of cases (prostate, esophagus, brain and lung) are selected from the authors´ clinical experience to demonstrate how to take advantage of 3D planning technology in beam design to increase the target dose coverage, reduce the volume of normal tissue receiving high dose, and protect crucial organs from radiation exposure. A comparison between 3D treatment planning and correspondent 2D treatment planning for the above cases is provided