1st international conference on the clinical use of tomotherapy, October 17-18, 2008 Munich. Abstracts

The first international conference on the clinical use of tomotherapy was hosted by the Department of Radiation Oncology of the ''Technische Univer-sita't Munchen'' on October 17 and 18, 2008. Over 170 radiation oncologists and physicists from 16 countries discussed improved treatment options offered by the tomotherapy technology.Thirty-five presentations and twenty-one posters covered a variety of indications in different tumor entities as well as physics implementation and quality assurance of this new technique.Notable conference lectures included the presentation of a predictive model of tumor response in lung cancer based on daily MV-CT imaging. The model may allow determination of effective adaptive radiotherapy strategies early in the course of radiation treatment. New techniques were presented to further reduce treatment time and to decrease the dose outside the planning target volume (''dynamic jaws',' ''dynamic couch''). Treatment protocols were discussed including a study directed from the University Clinic Essen in a method for treating multiple brain metastases with a simultaneous integrated boost technique applying 10x5 Gy within the metastases. This strategy is going to be evaluated against whole-brain radiotherapy with 10 x 3 Gy in a randomized phase II trial. Another interesting concept was the use of tomotherapy to treat the whole abdominal volume for ovarian cancer while sparing liver, kidneys and bone marrow. Tomotherapy proved its feasibility in the treatment of mesothelioma, a clinically challenging disease in which therapy options were previously limited due to complications of organs at risk. Many presentations discussed the application of tomotherapy in complex cases including large-volume lymphoma where avoidance of critical structures may lead to a reduction of long-term late toxicity. Presentations of user groups from both the USA and Europe discussed how these groups have shared and developed knowledge of clinical tomotherapy experience and the most effective ways to channel this knowledge