Emerging CBCT Techniques and Applications in Radiotherapy
Description
Cone-Beam CT (CBCT) is central to image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), but conventional CBCT is limited in their ability to capture respiratory-induced tumor motion, resolve soft-tissue contrast, and account for anatomical changes during treatment. These limitations are especially significant for tumors in the thorax and upper abdomen—such as lung, liver, and pancreas—where motion can strongly affect targeting accuracy and treatment outcomes. Recent years have seen rapid progress in CBCT acquisition and reconstruction methods aimed at overcoming these challenges. Innovations include fast 4D CBCT, nonstop gated CBCT, single-view or few-view CBCT imaging, dynamic CBCT imaging, and deep learning-based reconstruction, that reduce artifacts and improve temporal resolution. Collectively, these advances are enabling more accurate tumor localization, improved motion characterization, and new opportunities for adaptive radiotherapy. This scientific session will feature invited presentations from leading imaging researchers and academic clinical physicists working at the forefront of novel CBCT techniques development. Talks will highlight novel acquisition strategies, reconstruction algorithms, and motion-compensated approaches, along with preliminary evaluations of their clinical utility. The session will emphasize scientific progress, translational challenges, and future directions rather than routine workflows, fostering discussion on how advanced CBCT can reshape motion management across multiple tumor sites. The objective of this session is to provide attendees with insight into cutting-edge CBCT research for motion-affected cancers, to showcase novel technical approaches, and to stimulate dialogue between physicists and researchers on pathways toward clinical translation.