Pretreatment procedures

It is frequently in the patient's best interest that radiation treatments are initiated soon after the decision to treat is made. However, it is essential to good radiation therapy that the patient's treatment course be planned and beam-modifying devices be fabricated with utmost care prior to treatment. The objectives of the treatment, along with the treatment parameters and techniques necessary to achieve these objectives, must be discussed prior to initiating planning procedures. Determination of the target volume is made by the radiation oncologist; this is based on knowledge of the history of the tumor, the patterns of spread of the disease, and on diagnostic findings during the work-up of each patient. It is then necessary to obtain several measurements of the patient and also to identify the position of the target volume and of adjacent normal organs with respect to known external skin marks before the actual treatment planning is begun. Such localization can be done through several methods. The two most commonly used methods are radiographic and computed tomography (CT), both of which are discussed in this chapter. The measurements often include contours of the patient's external surface, usually in the axial plane of the central axis of the beam, and often in multiple levels within the region to be treated. Three dimensional localization and treatment planning requires thorough understanding of geometry as well as of patient positioning and immobilization. This chapter attempts to clarify some of these complicated but essential preparations for treatment