Patient Selection

Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) techniques can deliver highly conformal ablative doses of radiotherapy to relatively small target volumes. These techniques are associated with excellent rates of local disease control, even for relatively radioresistant tumor histologies. A critical aspect of treatment planning is the selection of those patients who would benefit from SBRT/SRS treatment. Factors such as tumor histology, systemic disease control, patient performance status as well as radiation dose, target volume/location, and radiosensitivity of surrounding organs at risk (OARs) are all important considerations in this process. The purpose of this chapter is to review criteria for patient selection and associated radiotherapy techniques for the most commonly encountered tumors amenable to SBRT/SRS.