Patterns Of Practice For Adaptive And Real-Time Radiation Therapy (Pop-Art Rt) Part I: Intra-Fraction Breathing Motion Management

Purpose: The POP-ART RT study aims to determine to what extent and how intra-fractional real-time respiratory motion management (RRMM) and plan adaptation for inter-fractional anatomical changes (ART), are used in clinical practice and to understand barriers to implementation. Here we report on part I: RRMM.Material and methods: A questionnaire was distributed worldwide to assess current clinical practice, wishes for expansion or new implementation and barriers to implementation.RRMM was defined as inspiration/expiration gating in free-breathing or breath-hold, or tracking where the target and the beam are continuously realigned.Results: The questionnaire was completed by 200 centres from 41 countries. RRMM was used by 68% of respondents ('users') for a median (range) of 2 (1-6) tumour sites.Eighty-one percent of users applied inspiration breath-hold in at least one tumour site (breast: 96%). External marker was used to guide RRMM by 61% of users. KV/MV imaging was frequently used for liver and pancreas (with fiducials) and for lung (with or without fiducials). Tracking was mainly performed on robotic linacs with hybrid internal-external monitoring.For breast and lung, approximately 75% of respondents used or wished to implement RRMM, which was lower for liver (44%) and pancreas (27%). Seventy-one percent of respondents wished to implement RRMM for a new tumour site. Main barriers were human/financial resources and capacity on the machine.Conclusion: Sixty-eight percent of respondents used RRMM and 71% wished to implement RRMM for a new tumour site. The main barriers to implementation were human/financial resources and capacity on treatment machines. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.