Feasibility of nonspinal bony landmark-based image registration in CyberKnife ® robotic radiotherapy for pelvic and femoral bone tumors.

Abstract

In stereotactic body radiotherapy for bone metastases using the CyberKnife system, spinal anatomy is generally employed as the alignment reference. However, when treating pelvic tumors such as those in the pubic bone or proximal femur, the spinal reference may be anatomically distant from the target, potentially compromising visualization and localization accuracy. This study evaluated the feasibility of using nonspinal bony landmarks, specifically the pubic bone and femoral neck, as reference points for image registration. Intrafractional positional deviations in six degrees of freedom and the frequency of intrafractional corrections were analyzed according to treatment site, including cases treated with conventional spine-based alignment. Alignment accuracy was visually and numerically verified by the treatment operator before beam delivery. Across all treatment sites, the mean translational and rotational deviations during treatment remained within ±0.5 mm and ± 0.5°, respectively. Furthermore, no substantial differences were observed in the mean frequency of intrafractional corrections among the different alignment approaches. These findings demonstrate that nonspinal tumor-adjacent bony landmarks can provide clinically acceptable accuracy comparable to conventional spine-based registration. To our knowledge, this is the first study to systematically assess the clinical feasibility of this approach in CyberKnife-based pelvic radiotherapy. The proposed method may serve as a practical and reliable alternative to spine-based alignment, particularly when the spine is remote from the target.