Daily Adjustment of the Radiation Dose in MRI-guided Stereotactic Radiotherapy for Tumors in the Abdominal and Pelvic Regions (ACTION)

SBRT delivers high-dose radiation to precisely defined target volumes and is an effective locally ablative treatment option for both primary tumours and oligometastases in various settings, including lesions in the abdomen or pelvis. However, SBRT in these regions faces considerable challenges such as inter-fractional organ motion and anatomical deformation, which can compromise treatment precision.

MR-guided SBRT offers a solution, providing superior soft-tissue contrast and enabling real-time, online treatment plan adaptation over the course of SBRT. This approach reduces the risk of geographical miss and overdose to adjacent, vulnerable OARs. Currently, MR-guided SBRT uses a fixed dose per fraction, only adjusting target volume and OAR contours for anatomical changes when performing plan adaptation. However, overlaps between planning target volumes (PTVs) and dose-limiting OARs regularly require compromises in PTV coverage. To address this, AF aims to also adjust dose per fraction based on daily PTV-OAR overlap. With this approach, more dose is applied on treatment days with less PTV-OAR overlap while less dose is applied on days with more PTV-OAR overlap. This trial assesses the feasibility of AF in MR-guided SBRT for abdominal and pelvic tumours that show PTV-overlap with one or more dose-limiting OARs, ultimately aiming to enhance PTV dose coverage without increasing toxicity.