Positional uncertainties of cervical and upper thoracic spine in stereotactic body radiotherapy with thermoplastic mask immobilization

PURPOSE: To investigate positional uncertainty and its correlation with clinical parameters in spine stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) using thermoplastic mask (TM) immobilization. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 21 patients who underwent spine SBRT for cervical or upper thoracic spinal lesions were retrospectively analyzed. All patients were treated with image guidance using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and 4 degrees-of-freedom (DoF) positional correction. Initial, pre-treatment, and post-treatment CBCTs were analyzed. Setup error (SE), pre-treatment residual error (preRE), post-treatment residual error (postRE), intrafraction motion before treatment (IM1), and intrafraction motion during treatment (IM2) were determined from 6 DoF manual rigid registration. RESULTS: The three-dimensional (3D) magnitudes of translational uncertainties (mean ± 2 standard deviation) were 3.7±3.5 mm (SE), 0.9±0.9 mm (preRE), 1.2±1.5 mm (postRE), 1.4±2.4 mm (IM1), and 0.9±1.0 mm (IM2), and average angular differences were 1.1°±1.2° (SE), 0.9°±1.1° (preRE), 0.9°±1.1° (postRE), 0.6°±0.9° (IM1), and 0.5°±0.5° (IM2). The 3D magnitude of SE, preRE, postRE, IM1, and IM2 exceeded 2 mm in 18, 0, 3, 3, and 1 patients, respectively. No association were found between all positional uncertainties and body mass index, pain score, and treatment location (p > 0.05, Mann-Whitney test). There was a tendency of intrafraction motion to increase with overall treatment time; however, the correlation was not statistically significant (p > 0.05, Spearman rank correlation test). CONCLUSION: In spine SBRT using TM immobilization, CBCT and 4 DoF alignment correction, a minimum residual translational uncertainty was 2 mm. Shortening overall treatment time and 6 DoF positional correction may further reduce positional uncertainties.