Abstract
Purpose: Cyberknife system is used for providing stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) hypofractionation scheme. The whole treatment delivery is based on live imaging of the patient. The minor error made at any stage may bring severe radiation injury to the patient or damage to the system itself. Several safety measures were taken to make the system safer. Methods: The radiation treatment provided thru a 6MV linac attached to Kuka robot (Cyberknife G4, Accuray Inc. Sunnyvale, CA, USA). Several possible errors were identified related to patient alignment, treatment planning, dose delivery and physics quality assurance. During dose delivery, manual and visual checks were introduced to confirm pre and intra-treatment imaging to reduce possible errors. One additional step was introduced to confirm that software tracking-tools had worked correctly with highest possible confidence level. Robotic head move in different orientations over and around the patient body, the rigidity of linac-head cover and other accessories was checked periodically. The vender was alerted when a tiny or bigger piece of equipment needed additional interlocked support. Results: As of our experience treating 525 patients on Cyberknife during the last four years, we saw on and off technical issues. During image acquisition, it was made essential to follow the site-specific imaging protocols. Adequate anatomy was contoured to document the respective doses. Followed by auto-segmentation, manual tweaking was performed on every structure. The calculation box was enclosing the whole image during the final calculation. Every plan was evaluated on slice-by slice basis. To review the whole process, a check list was maintained during the physics 2nd-check. Conclusion: The implementation of manual and visual additional checks introduced along with automated checks for confirmation was found promising in terms of reduction in systematic errors and making the system safer than before.