Keywords:
Oncology, Radioprotection / Radiation dose, CT, Diagnostic procedure, Radiation safety, Dosimetric comparison
Authors:
P. De Marco, D. Origgi, C. Rampinelli, V. Giannetta, L. Borrelli, M. Bellomi; Milan/IT
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-2945
Aims and objectives
Computed tomography (CT) imaging is widely used for diagnosis,
staging,
treatment response assessment,
and surveillance in oncology.
In the past few years,
with the advent of more effective cancer treatments,
long-term survival of patients with malignant diseases has increased [1].
As a consequence,
patients receive multiple ct examinations during the course of their disease and increasing radiation exposure has become a matter of concern.
In fact,
there is reasonable epidemiological evidence that effective doses below 100 mSv result in non-negligible increase in cancer risk [2,
3].
Different techniques of acquisition and reconstruction have been introduced to reduce dose to patients: automated exposure control (AEC),
automatic tube current modulation (ATCM) and iterative reconstruction (IR) algorithms have been successfully implemented on modern scanners to obtain lower exposures while maintaining the same image quality [4-7].
To further reduce radiation exposure,
CT examinations should be properly tailored according to patient body habitus: a simple method is to use the Body Mass Index (BMI) to adjust the energy of the beam prior the acquisition.
The aim of this study is to optimize chest-abdomen-pelvis (CAP) CT examinations in staging and follow-up for oncological patients.