Advances in radiation therapy dosimetry

During the last decade, there has been an explosion of new radiation therapy planning and delivery tools. We went through a rapid transition from conventional three-dimensional (3D) conformal radiation therapy to intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatments, and additional new techniques for motion-adaptive radiation therapy are being introduced. These advances push the frontiers in our effort to provide better patient care; and with the addition of IMRT, temporal dimensions are major challenges for the radiotherapy patient dosimetry and delivery verification. Advanced techniques are less tolerant to poor implementation than are standard techniques. Mis-administrations are more difficult to detect and can possibly lead to poor outcomes for some patients. Instead of presenting a manual on quality assurance for radiation therapy, this manuscript provides an overview of dosimetry verification tools and a focused discussion on breath holding, respiratory gating and the applications of four-dimensional computed tomography in motion management. Some of the major challenges in the above areas are discussed.