Practice Patterns of Pediatric Total Body Irradiation Techniques: A Children’s Oncology Group Survey

Rassiah P, Esiashvili N, Olch AJ, Hua CH, Ulin K, Molineu A, Marcus K, Gopalakrishnan M, Pillai S, Kovalchuk N, Liu A, Niyazov G, Peñagarícano J, Cheung F, Olson AC, Wu CC, Malhotra HK, MacEwan IJ, Faught J, Breneman JC, Followill DS, FitzGerald TJ, Kalapurakal JA. Practice Patterns of Pediatric Total Body Irradiation Techniques: A Children’s Oncology Group Survey. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2021 Dec 1;111(5):1155-1164. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2021.07.1715. Epub 2021 Aug 2. PMID: 34352289; PMCID: PMC11977860.

The aim of this study was to examine current practice patterns in pediatric total body irradiation (TBI) techniques among COG member institutions. Between November 2019 and February 2020, a questionnaire containing 52 questions related to the technical aspects of TBI was sent to medical physicists at 152 COG institutions. The questions were designed to obtain technical information on commonly used TBI treatment techniques. Another set of 9 questions related to the clinical management of patients undergoing TBI was sent to 152 COG member radiation oncologists at the same institutions.