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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Feb 7.
Published in final edited form as: Phys Med Biol. 2014 Jan 17;59(3):647–660. doi: 10.1088/0031-9155/59/3/647

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Workflow diagram of the in vivo protocol workflow for a treatment fraction. Steps that would not occur during routine prostate IMRT treatment are denoted with asterisks. Most of the in vivo specific steps can occur in parallel with the normal workflow such that it need not be altered. For example, system preparation can occur before the patient arrives while another patient is treated. The background acquisition can occur while the patient is aligned to external markers as long as the rectal balloon with detectors has already been inserted. The exception is the CT scan. However, some patient are aligned with soft tissue each fraction, rather than using MV portal images. For these patients the CT scan would be a routine part of treatment, and the in vivo workflow would not disrupt or alter the treatment workflow in any way.