IMRT 2018

Contouring The Spinal Cord

▪ Conventional external beam RT ▪ The field generally encompasses the entire circumference of the cord, vertebral body, and spinal nerve roots at the treated levels

▪ Delineation of the cord in high-precision RT (IMRT) is unsettled with various studies contouring the critical organ in the axial plane as ▪ the spinal cord ▪ the spinal cord +2–3 mm (Planning Risk Volume) ▪ or the spinal canal

Kirkpatrick JP, van der Kogel AJ, Schultheiss TE. Radiation dose-volume effects in the spinal cord. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2010 Mar 1;76(3 Suppl):S42-9.