Dear Editor,Intensity-modulated radiotherapy(IMRT)has a distinct advantage of high conformity and is an appropriate tech-nique for treating nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC).Pre-vious studies have demonstrated that anatom...Dear Editor,Intensity-modulated radiotherapy(IMRT)has a distinct advantage of high conformity and is an appropriate tech-nique for treating nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC).Pre-vious studies have demonstrated that anatomical changes in the external contour,shape,and location of the target and critical structures are significant and result in dosi-metric changes[1,2].Patients’quality of life and clini-cal outcomes might be improved by IMRT replanning[3].Therefore,replanning strategies should be consid-ered instead of single-planning strategies throughout the entire course of radiotherapy.However,there are sub-stantial controversies on(1)the appropriate time for tar-get redelineation,(2)how to modify the target volumes,and(3)how to evaluate the modified plans.The present study provides a new perspective in replanning with regard to these three aspects.展开更多
文摘Dear Editor,Intensity-modulated radiotherapy(IMRT)has a distinct advantage of high conformity and is an appropriate tech-nique for treating nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC).Pre-vious studies have demonstrated that anatomical changes in the external contour,shape,and location of the target and critical structures are significant and result in dosi-metric changes[1,2].Patients’quality of life and clini-cal outcomes might be improved by IMRT replanning[3].Therefore,replanning strategies should be consid-ered instead of single-planning strategies throughout the entire course of radiotherapy.However,there are sub-stantial controversies on(1)the appropriate time for tar-get redelineation,(2)how to modify the target volumes,and(3)how to evaluate the modified plans.The present study provides a new perspective in replanning with regard to these three aspects.
