SGRT Forum

Has anyone experience with Align whereby there have been difficulties due to tissue falling outside the FOV at CT?

We have had a couple of larger patients recently who we have been unable to adequately 'see' the entire volume due to not having a wide bore scanner (we used to and never had problems!) and therefore the FOV is too restricted. Do centres with similar problems just set an amended ROI on Align to avoid the missing data?

Many thanks, Suzanne

Hi

Can I ask are you missing all the external contour?

We don't have that problem as we have a large bore, however, could you use the imaging to match and then a acquire a new reference surface on day one of treatment and edit your ROI appropriately with the new surface.

Thanks for your reply Nicola.

Currently we only use Align for breasts, and no, thankfully (so far!) we aren't missing all of our external contour, however occasionally we have to offset the breastboard in the scanner to get the patient through. We have a workaround which is to plan these patients on the wingboard, which unfortunately wasn't an option for one of our recent patients, where using the breastboard incline was critical.

As we move forward with other sites, there are concerns with some of the larger pelvic patients that the data loss may be both sides, but your suggestion to take a reference based on imaging day 1 is a smooth workaround that could easily be followed, assuming the imaging is within tolerance.