Feasibility of a high speed treatment planning unit for rotational conformation radiotherapy

Rotational multi-leaf conformation is a standard high precision radiation technique in Japan. It is a combined gantry rotation and movement of multi-leaf collimators to create a similar dose distribution to the target volume. Although treatment planning for this technique is rather simple when compared to further complex techniques such as the non-coplanar technique, it is time and man-power consuming. The authors developed a new type of planning machine for the conformation therapy. Fully automatic field setting based on the beam's-eye-view principle reduces planning time quite drastically. The authors hope that the present planning system will enhance the availability of conformation radiation therapy. (author)