The Use of MR-Guided Radiation Therapy for Head and Neck Cancer and Recommended Reporting Guidance.

Authors

Brigid A McDonald
Riccardo Dal Bello
Clifton D Fuller
Panagiotis Balermpas

Publication Date

1-1-2024

Journal

Seminars in Radiation Oncology

Abstract

Although magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become standard diagnostic workup for head and neck malignancies and is currently recommended by most radiological societies for pharyngeal and oral carcinomas, its utilization in radiotherapy has been heterogeneous during the last decades. However, few would argue that implementing MRI for annotation of target volumes and organs at risk provides several advantages, so that implementation of the modality for this purpose is widely accepted. Today, the term MR-guidance has received a much broader meaning, including MRI for adaptive treatments, MR-gating and tracking during radiotherapy application, MR-features as biomarkers and finally MR-only workflows. First studies on treatment of head and neck cancer on commercially available dedicated hybrid-platforms (MR-linacs), with distinct common features but also differences amongst them, have also been recently reported, as well as "biological adaptation" based on evaluation of early treatment response via functional MRI-sequences such as diffusion weighted ones. Yet, all of these approaches towards head and neck treatment remain at their infancy, especially when compared to other radiotherapy indications. Moreover, the lack of standardization for reporting MR-guided radiotherapy is a major obstacle both to further progress in the field and to conduct and compare clinical trials. Goals of this article is to present and explain all different aspects of MR-guidance for radiotherapy of head and neck cancer, summarize evidence, as well as possible advantages and challenges of the method and finally provide a comprehensive reporting guidance for use in clinical routine and trials.

Keywords

Humans, Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted, Head and Neck Neoplasms, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Radiotherapy, Image-Guided, Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated

Comments

This article has been corrected. See Semin Radiat Oncol. 2024 Jul;34(3):365.

DOI

10.1016/j.semradonc.2023.10.003

PMID

38105096

PMCID

PMC11372437

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

9-4-2024

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Author MSS

Published Open-Access

yes