British Journal of Radiology (2005) 78, 672
© 2005 British Institute of Radiology
doi: 10.1259/bjr/18349625
Simultaneously misleading acronyms in radiation therapy
The Editor — Sir,
In 1992, Thomson and Clegg [1] described a technique for Stereotactic Multiple Arc Radiotherapy (SMART). By the end of the decade, those of us who answered in the affirmative to the question "is your centre doing SMART?" ran the risk of being mistaken for practitioners of Simultaneous Modulated Accelerated Radiation Therapy [2]. More recently we all got confused with those indulging in Synchronised Moving Aperture Radiation Therapy [3].
Those of us who have dealings with cardiologists may get further confused by Shape Memory Alloy Recovery Technology stents [4], to say nothing of the innumerable uses in the wider world, such as Sensory Modality Assessment in Rehabilitation Technology [5] or Simple Modular Architecture Research Tools [6].
It's all getting much too SMART. I therefore wish to launch a campaign to prohibit all further novel uses of SMART in radiotherapy. I wonder if a good name for the campaign would be "Stop Multiplying Acronyms in Radiotherapy?"...
Yours etc.,
S J Thomas
Medical Physics, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ
Received for publication February 3, 2005.
Accepted for publication March 17, 2005.
References
- Thomson ES, Clegg P. Cranial stereotactic multiple arc radiotherapy; treatment planning using angiographic images. Br J Radiol 1992;65:317–20.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Butler EB, Teh BS, Grant WH 3rd, Uhl BM, Kuppersmith RB, Chiu JK, et al. SMART (simultaneous modulated accelerated radiation therapy) boost: a new accelerated fractionation schedule for the treatment of head and neck cancer with intensity modulated radiotherapy. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 1999;45:21–32.[CrossRef][Medline]
- Neicu T, Shirato H, Seppenwoolde Y, Jiang SB. Synchronized moving aperture radiation therapy (SMART): average tumour trajectory for lung patients. Phys Med Biol 2003;48:587–98.[CrossRef][Medline]
- Phatouros CC, Higashida RT, Malek AM, Meyers PM, Lempert TE, Dowd CF, et al. Endovascular stenting for carotid artery stenosis: preliminary experience using the shape-memory-alloy-recoverable-technology (SMART) stent. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 2000;21:732–8.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Gill-Thwaites H, Munday R. The Sensory Modality Assessment and Rehabilitation Technique (SMART): a valid and reliable assessment for vegetative state and minimally conscious state patients. Brain Inj 2004;18:1255–69.[CrossRef][Medline]
- Schultz J, Milpetz F, Bork P, Ponting C. SMART, a simple modular architecture research tool: identification of signalling domains. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1998;95:5857–64.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
