Volume and dose specification for reporting external beam therapy (the ICRU recommendations)
(1997) Working meeting on national programmes: design, harmonisation and structures — Location: Vienna, Austria (8.May.1995)
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- Abstract
- The International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) has published the Report 50 ''Prescribing, Recording and Reporting Photon Beam Therapy'' (1993). The aim of the Report is to promote the use of a common set of definitions and concepts for specifying and reporting the doses in radiation therapy, as well as the volumes in which they are prescribed and delivered. Different volumes need to be identified prior to treatment planning: the gross tumour volume (GTV) and the clinical target volume (CTV). The planning target volume (PTV) is defined for treatment planning. The treated volume and the irradiated volume are identified when the treatment techniques and irradiation plan have been decided upon. As a general recommendation, the dose at, or near, the centre of the PTV, as well as the maximum and the minimum dose, shall be reported. Additional information when clinically relevant and available, should also be reported. The system of recommendations for reporting dose is based on the selection of a point within the PTV, which is referred to as the ICRU Reference Point. The ICRU Reference Point is selected firstly at the centre, or in the central part, of the PTV, and secondly on, or near, the central axes of the beams. A certain degree of inhomogeneity of the absorbed dose throughout the PTV cannot be avoided. Therefore, as a basic requirement, the best estimate of the maximum dose and the minimum dose to the PTV shall be reported together with the dose at the ICRU Reference Point. These 3 dose values then indicate the dose profile within the PTV. ICRU Report 50 allows for reporting basic data for all treatments at any level of complexity for absorbed dose computation. It also allows for reporting additional clinical and relevant data obtained by sophisticated methods. The recommendations are thus applicable to all external radiotherapy procedures.
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Citations
Wambersie, A., Landberg, T., Akanuma, A., Chavaudra, J., Dobbs, J., Gerard, J.-P., Hanks, G., Horiot, J.-C., Johansson, K.-A., Möller, T., Purdy, J., & Suntharalingam, N. (1997). Volume and dose specification for reporting external beam therapy (the ICRU recommendations). IAEA Technical Documents Series, 989, 89-103. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/119171 (Original work published 1997)