Efficient stereotactic radio surgery planning for irregularly shaped intracranial lesions

With the introduction of linear accelerator based radiosurgical systems and advanced treatment planning software, it has become possible to tailor a high dose of photon radiation for irregularly shaped tumors. This procedure is known as stereotactic radiosurgery. A technical difficulty of the procedure, however, is the multiplicity of the options to consider in a relatively short time. This problem is more apparent when the lesion is not symmetrical in shape, increasing the planning time up to 5-6 hours. During the planning phase the patient wears a special frame pinned on to the skull making it desirable to shorten the uncomfortable planning phase. In this study an efficient stereotactic radiosurgery planning system is introduced for the treatment of irregularly shaped lesions. Multiple sets of spherical radiation volumes are produced using standardized radiation-beam-arcs focused on multiple isocenters computed from the lesion geometry. The system was evaluated reviewing forty previously treated lesions and the results were found encouraging enough to use the automated approach in the clinic