About this Research Topic
In external beam radiation therapy, photon, electron or ion beams are used to deliver doses of ionizing radiation to treat tumours. However, to compensate for uncertainties originating from setup errors and internal organ motion, safety margins are applied, and the size of these margins determines the volume of irradiated healthy tissues and thus the risk of normal tissue complication.
The pursuit of precision in therapeutic dose application has prompted the development of hybrid devices that integrate treatment units, linear accelerators, with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging devices to facilitate MR-guided radiotherapy (MRgRT). While MR-linac devices are commercially available, there are ongoing developments towards the implementation of MR-guided ion therapy. In addition, offline MR-guided radiotherapy is currently investigated, which does not require dedicated devices.
While the availability of MRgRT increases rapidly and early results confirm its clinical potential, the implementation still poses conceptual and practical challenges. This includes the impact of the magnetic field on dose deposition and on dosimetry, the optimal strategies of MR-only-based treatment planning, optimizing MR imaging for the purpose of radiotherapy as well as the development of the most suitable clinical workflows to address inter- and intrafractional changes in patient anatomy and physiology. This Research Topic is dedicated to these exciting developments in radiation therapy physics covering a wide range of current advancements in the field of MR-image guided radiation therapy and aims at disseminating present knowledge among the MRgRT community.
For this Research Topic, the Editors aim to collect Original Research papers and Reviews. Manuscript topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- reference and non-reference dosimetry in magnetic fields
- novel detectors for application in magnetic field
- detector response modelling in magnetic fields
- radiation transport and dose deposition modelling in magnetic fields
- installation and commissioning of MR-guided treatment systems
- MR-based treatment planning (including MR based imaging biomarkers)
- MR-specific treatment challenges (e.g. electron return effect, electron streaming effect)
- on-line adaptive treatment planning strategies
- motion-compensated treatments
- dose accumulation in adaptive treatments
- development of QA methods for MR-guided treat
The pursuit of precision in therapeutic dose application has prompted the development of hybrid devices that integrate treatment units, linear accelerators, with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging devices to facilitate MR-guided radiotherapy (MRgRT). While MR-linac devices are commercially available, there are ongoing developments towards the implementation of MR-guided ion therapy. In addition, offline MR-guided radiotherapy is currently investigated, which does not require dedicated devices.
While the availability of MRgRT increases rapidly and early results confirm its clinical potential, the implementation still poses conceptual and practical challenges. This includes the impact of the magnetic field on dose deposition and on dosimetry, the optimal strategies of MR-only-based treatment planning, optimizing MR imaging for the purpose of radiotherapy as well as the development of the most suitable clinical workflows to address inter- and intrafractional changes in patient anatomy and physiology. This Research Topic is dedicated to these exciting developments in radiation therapy physics covering a wide range of current advancements in the field of MR-image guided radiation therapy and aims at disseminating present knowledge among the MRgRT community.
For this Research Topic, the Editors aim to collect Original Research papers and Reviews. Manuscript topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- reference and non-reference dosimetry in magnetic fields
- novel detectors for application in magnetic field
- detector response modelling in magnetic fields
- radiation transport and dose deposition modelling in magnetic fields
- installation and commissioning of MR-guided treatment systems
- MR-based treatment planning (including MR based imaging biomarkers)
- MR-specific treatment challenges (e.g. electron return effect, electron streaming effect)
- on-line adaptive treatment planning strategies
- motion-compensated treatments
- dose accumulation in adaptive treatments
- development of QA methods for MR-guided treat
Keywords: MRI-linac, MRL, dosimetry, magnetic field, MR-guided radiotherapy, radiation dosimeters, Lorenz force
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
