Image-Guided Radiotherapy

Abstract

The role of radiation therapy (RT) in the treatment of liver malignancies has historically been low, in part due to challenges in delivering ablative doses of RT safely while respecting the radiation dose limits of numerous normal tissues in the upper abdomen, including the liver itself. Challenges to the routine use of RT to treat hepatic malignancies include the low whole liver tolerance to RT and the proximity of liver tumors to other organs at risk (OAR), such as the stomach and bowel. Since the liver moves with breathing and its mean position relative to the vertebral bodies changes daily, delivering highly conformal RT can be challenging.