RESUMO
Objective To investigate the feasibility of online and offline cone-beam CT (CBCT) guided radiotherapy for lung cancer. Methods Fourteen patients with lung tumor treated by three-dimen-sional conformal radiotherapy were investigated. Online kV CBCT scan,image registration and setup correc-tion were performed before and immediately after radiotherapy. CBCT online-guided correction data were used to calculate the population-based CTV-PTV margins under the condition of non-correction and correction in every fraction respectively. The numbers of initial images and the population-based CTV-PTV margins af-ter the offline compensation of the system setup error were evaluated with the permission of 0.5 mm and 1.5 mm maximal residue error,respectively. Results Under the condition of non-correction,the required mar-gins for total error were 5.7 mm,8.0 mm and 7.8 mm in the left-right(x axis) ,cranio-caudal(y axis) and anterior-posterior(z axis) directions, respectively. When the tumor was corrected in every fraction, the re-quired margins for intra-fraction error were 2.4 mm,2.4 mm and 2.3 mm in x,y and z axes, respectively. To correct the systematic setup error,9 sets of CBCT images for 3.3 mm,3.7 mm and 3.6 mm PTV margins, and 7 sets of CBCT images for 3.9 mm,4.3 mm and 4.3 mm PTV margins in x,y and z axes were necessary when 0. 5 mm and 1.5 mm maximal residue errosr were permited respectively. Conclusions Both of the online CBCT correction and the offline adaptive correction can markedly reduce the impact of setup error and reduce the required PTV margins accordingly. It is feasible to deliver the online and offline image guided ra-diation for patients with lung tumor.