UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology SPRING 2024 - Flipbook - Page 39
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
reduction in dose delivered to organs at risk. Beyond the standard anatomic considerations at the time
of treatment planning, MRI simulation also unlocks functional tumor-specific considerations as well,
which can be interrogated with MRI-based functional imaging, as noted previously. Given the rapidly
increased use of MRI-simulation in recent years, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine
(AAPM) have published a task group report providing recommendations on the safe and optimal use of
MRI simulation,87 which is a key aspect of the structure component in the value framework described
above. These advantages, as well as the more complicated process of care, validate the notion that MRIonly simulation should not just be conflated with standard simulation nomenclature. Instead, its work
and practice expense should be valued for what are already established equipment costs and process of
care differences.
Figure 4. Example workflow
diagram of an MRI-only
prostate radiation therapy
process. Permission to
reproduce this figure was
obtained through the Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/
by/4.0/). Reproduced with
permission from: Persson
E, Gustafsson CJ, Ambolt P,
et al. MR-PROTECT: Clinical
feasibility of a prostate MRIonly radiotherapy treatment
workflow and investigation
of acceptance criteria. Radiat
Oncol, 15:77. Copyright BMC
(Part of Springer Nature (2020).
No changes were made to
this figure from the original
publication.
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