Background and purpose: Positional verification during single fraction lung SBRT could increase confidence and reduce the chance of geographic miss. As planar 2DkV imaging during VMAT irradiation is already available on current linear accelerators, markerless tracking based on these images could offer widely available and low-cost verification. We evaluated treatment delivery data and template matching and triangulation for 3D-positional verification during free-breathing, single fraction (34 Gy), 10 MV flattening-filter-free VMAT lung SBRT. Methods and materials: Tumor tracking based on kV imaging at 7 frames/second was performed during irradiation in 6 consecutive patients (7 lesions). Tumor characteristics, tracking ability, comparison of tracking displacements with CBCT-based shifts, tumor position relative to the PTV margin, and treatment times are reported. Results: For all 7 lesions combined, 3D tumor position could be determined for, on average, 71% (51-84%) of the total irradiation time. Visually estimated tracked and automated match +/À manually-corrected CBCT-derived displacements generally agreed within 1 mm. During the tracked period, the longitudinal, lateral and vertical position of the tumor was within a 5 mm/3 mm PTV margin 95.5/85.3% of the time. The PTV was derived from the ITV including all tumor motion. The total time from first set-up imaging to end of the last arc was 18.3-31.4 min (mean = 23.4, SD = 4.1). Conclusion: 3D positional verification during irradiation of small lung targets with limited motion, was feasible. However, tumor position could not be determined for on average 29% of the time. Improvements are needed. Margin reduction may be feasible. Imaging and delivery of a single 34 Gy fraction was fast.

Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (cCRT) is the preferred treatment for stage III NSCLC because surgery containing multimodality treatment is often not appropriate. Alternatives, often for less fit patients, include sequential CRT and RT alone. Many reports describing the relationship between overall survival (OS), toxicity, and dosimetry are based on clinical trials, with strict criteria for patient selection. We performed an institutional analysis to study the relationship between dosimetric parameters, toxicity, and OS in inoperable patients with stage III NSCLC treated with (hybrid) IMRT/VMAT-based techniques in routine clinical practice. Eligible patients had undergone treatment with radical intent using cCRT, sCRT, or RT alone, planned to a total dose ≥ 50 Gy delivered in ≥15 fractions. All analyses were performed for two patient groups, (1) cCRT (n = 64) and (2) sCRT/RT (n = 65). The toxicity rate differences between the two groups were not significant, and OS was 29 and 17 months, respectively. For sCRT/RT, no dosimetric factors were associated with OS, whereas for cCRT, PTV-volume, esophagus V50 Gy, and contralateral lung V5 Gy were associated. cCRT OS was significantly lower in patients with esophagitis ≥ G2. The overall rate of ≥G3 pneumonitis was low (3%), and the rate of high-grade esophagitis the OS in this real-world patient population was comparable to those reported in clinical trials. Based on this hypothesis-generating data, more aggressive esophageal sparing merits consideration. Institutional auditing and benchmarking of the planning strategy, dosimetry, and outcome have an important role to play in the continuous quality improvement process.