Department of Radiation Oncology, Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Department of Physics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
J Med Imaging Radiat Oncol. 2020 Oct;64(5):682-688. doi: 10.1111/1754-9485.13018. Epub 2020 Apr 3.
Australia's first proton beam therapy (PBT) service, The Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy and Research, is scheduled to open in the near future providing PBT for patients closer to home. Patients currently access Commonwealth funding for PBT via the Medicare Medical Treatment Overseas Program (MTOP). Proton versus photon treatment planning is a pre-requisite for the MTOP application. The Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) Department of Radiation Oncology has been providing this since 2016. We aim to provide a descriptive overview of our proton versus photon treatment planning process, presenting a summary of the comparative planning results and the treatment pathways selected for the patients referred.
All patients referred to the RAH for comparative planning between January 2016 and December 2018 were included in the analysis. Comparative plans were generated for each case using Pinnacle or Eclipse treatment planning systems. The planning techniques used and plan quality metrics were reported.
Forty three patients were referred for comparative planning. The age range was 1-63 years, with the majority (72%) being paediatric patients (age ≤18 years). Of the 19 cases that have been submitted to MTOP, 16 have been accepted and 3 denied. Two of the accepted cases chose not to travel abroad for PBT. The other 14 cases have received PBT overseas.
The RAH has provided an important service to demonstrate the dosimetric difference between PBT and photon therapy for Australian patients, an important step in supporting the funding of patients for treatment overseas.
澳大利亚首家质子束治疗（PBT）服务——澳大利亚布拉开格质子治疗和研究中心，即将投入使用，将为患者提供离家更近的 PBT 治疗。目前，患者通过医疗保险海外医疗计划（MTOP）获得 PBT 的联邦资金。质子与光子治疗计划是 MTOP 申请的前提。自 2016 年以来，皇家阿德莱德医院（RAH）放射肿瘤学系一直提供这项服务。我们旨在提供质子与光子治疗计划流程的描述性概述，总结比较计划结果，并为转诊患者选择治疗途径。
分析纳入了 2016 年 1 月至 2018 年 12 月期间转诊到 RAH 进行比较计划的所有患者。使用 Pinnacle 或 Eclipse 治疗计划系统为每个病例生成比较计划。报告了使用的计划技术和计划质量指标。
共 43 名患者转诊进行比较计划。年龄范围为 1-63 岁，大多数（72%）为儿科患者（年龄≤18 岁）。在提交 MTOP 的 19 个病例中，有 16 个被接受，3 个被拒绝。2 个被接受的病例选择不出国接受 PBT 治疗。其他 14 个病例已在海外接受 PBT 治疗。
RAH 为澳大利亚患者展示了 PBT 与光子治疗之间的剂量差异提供了一项重要服务，这是支持患者海外治疗资金的重要一步。
