ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we review characteristics of patients’ anatomy changes for head and neck cancers, and evaluate di¢erent adaptive radiotherapy scenarios.
With intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT; Purdy 2001; Wu et al. 2000), it is possible to treat very complicated target volumes at variable dose levels while sparing adjacent normal structures. Ÿis form of advanced radiation therapy technique has long been realized as an outstanding method for treating head and neck (H&N) cancer. It has been shown that IMRT is the most commonly used modality for H&N radiotherapy (RT; Mell, Roeske, and Mundt 2003). Implementation of IMRT requires adequate selection and delineation of target volumes
based on di¢erent imaging modalities, appropriate speci£cation and dose prescription regarding dose-volume constraints, and proper knowledge of setup uncertainties.
