•Planning on multiple anatomic scenarios could improve CIRT robustness for pancreatic cancer.•The PRV approach fails in predicting duodenum position along the RT course.•Efficient online adaptation ...is needed to guarantee CIRT quality for pancreatic cancer.
To quantify benefits of robust optimization on multiple 4DCT acquisitions combined with off-line treatment adaptation for neoadjuvant carbon ion therapy (CIRT) of pancreatic cancer.
For 10 previously treated patients, 4DCTs were acquired around −15 (CTPlan), −5 (RE1), −1 (RE2) and +6 (RE3) days from RT start. Treatment plans were newly optimized to a dose prescription of 38.4 Gy(RBE) (8 fractions) with a constraint of 38 Gy(RBE) to 1% of the gastrointestinal organs at risk volume (D1%). Three strategies were tested: (A) robust optimization on CTPlan maximum exhale (0Ex) with 3 mm set-up, 3% range uncertainty, including 30%-inhale; (B) addition of the RE1-0Ex scenario; (C) plan recalculation at each REi and adaptation (RPi) according to deviation thresholds from clinical goals. The cumulative variation of target coverage and GI-OARs doses was evaluated. Duodenum contours of all 4DCTs of each patient were registered on CTPlan-0Ex. The capacity of pre-RT acquisitions to predict duodenum position was investigated by computing the intersection of contours at CTplan, RE1, or their union, with respect to subsequent 4DCTs and the CTV, coupled with increasing margin.
(A) No recalculation exceeded the D1% constraint. (B) The inclusion of RE1-0Ex in the optimization problem improved inter-fraction robustness on a patient-specific basis, but was non-significant on average. (C) Half of the plans would be re-optimized to recover target coverage and/or minimize duodenum dose, at least once. A significant difference was observed between pre-RT duodenum contours when intersecting subsequent contours, either with a margin expansion.
Anatomical variations highlighted at multiple REi proved that a fast and efficient online adaptation is essential to optimize treatment quality of CIRT for pancreatic cancer.
•Cardiac exposure from IMRT is similar to 3DCRT using current optimisation objectives.•More stringent IMRT cardiac sparing planning objectives may reduce cardiac exposure.•Consensus on contouring and ...Dose Volume Constraints for the heart is lacking.•Dose parameters reported for cardiac substructures, pericardium and the great vessels vary substantially.•Further heart sparing may be achieved using active respiratory motion management or particle beam therapy.
Lung cancer radiotherapy increases the risk of cardiotoxicity and heart radiation dose is an independent predictor of poor survival. This study describes heart doses and strategies aiming to reduce exposure.
A systematic review of lung cancer dosimetry studies reporting heart doses published 2013–2020 was undertaken. Doses were compared according to laterality, region irradiated, treatment modality (stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) and non-SABR), planning technique, and respiratory motion management.
For 392 non-SABR regimens in 105 studies, the average MHD was 10.3 Gy (0.0–48.4) and was not significantly different between left and right-sided tumours. It was similar between IMRT and 3DCRT (10.9 Gy versus 10.6 Gy) and lower with particle beam therapy (proton 7.0 Gy; carbon-ion 1.9 Gy). Active respiratory motion management reduced exposure (7.4 Gy versus 9.3 Gy). For 168 SABR regimens in 35 studies, MHD was 4.0 Gy (0.0–32.4). Exposure was higher in central and lower lobe lesions (6.3 and 5.8 Gy respectively). MHD was lowest for carbon ions (0.5 Gy) compared to other techniques. Active respiratory motion management reduced exposure (2.4 Gy versus 5.0 Gy). Delineation guidelines and Dose Volume Constraints for the heart varied substantially.
There is scope to reduce heart radiation dose in lung cancer radiotherapy. Consensus on planning objectives, contouring and DVCs for the heart may lead to reduced heart doses in the future. For IMRT, more stringent optimisation objectives may reduce heart dose. Active respiratory motion management or particle therapy may be considered in situations where cardiac dose is high.
Online adaptive radiotherapy has the potential to reduce toxicity for patients treated for rectal cancer because smaller planning target volumes (PTV) margins around the entire clinical target volume ...(CTV) are required. The aim of this study is to describe the first clinical experience of a Conebeam CT (CBCT)-based online adaptive workflow for rectal cancer, evaluating timing of different steps in the workflow, plan quality, target coverage and patient compliance.
Twelve consecutive patients eligible for 5 × 5 Gy pre-operative radiotherapy were treated on a ring-based linear accelerator with a multidisciplinary team present at the treatment machine for each fraction. The accelerator is operated using an integrated software platform for both treatment planning and delivery. In all directions for all CTVs a PTV margin of 5 mm was used, except for the cranial/caudal borders of the total CTV where a margin of 8 mm was applied. A reference plan was generated based on a single planning CT. After aligning the patient the online adaptive procedure started with acquisition of a CBCT. The planning CT scan was registered to the CBCT using deformable registration and a synthetic CT scan was generated. With the support of artificial intelligence, structure guided deformation and the synthetic CT scan contours were adapted by the system to match the anatomy on the CBCT. If necessary, these contours were adjusted before a new plan was generated. A second and third CBCT were acquired to validate the new plan with respect to CTV coverage just before and after treatment delivery, respectively. Treatment was delivered using volumetric modulated arc treatment (VMAT). All steps in this process were defined and timed.
On average the timeslot needed at the treatment machine was 34 min. The process of acquiring a CBCT, evaluating and adjusting the contours, creating the new plan and verifying the CTV on the CBCT scan took on average 20 min. Including delivery and post treatment verification this was 26 min. Manual adjustments of the target volumes were necessary in 50% of fractions. Plan quality, target coverage and patient compliance were excellent.
First clinical experience with CBCT-based online adaptive radiotherapy shows it is feasible for rectal cancer. Trial registration Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act (WMO) does not apply to this study and was retrospectively approved by the Medical Ethics review Committee of the Academic Medical Center (W21_087 # 21.097; Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Location Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands).
A dosimetric comparison of multiple static-field intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), multiarc intensity-modulated arc therapy (IMAT), and single-arc arc-modulated radiation therapy (AMRT) ...was performed to evaluate their clinical advantages and shortcomings.
Twelve cases were selected for this study, including three head-and-neck, three brain, three lung, and three prostate cases. An IMRT, IMAT, and AMRT plan was generated for each of the cases, with clinically relevant planning constraints. For a fair comparison, the same parameters were used for the IMRT, IMAT, and AMRT planning for each patient.
Multiarc IMAT provided the best plan quality, while single-arc AMRT achieved dose distributions comparable to those of IMRT, especially in the complicated head-and-neck and brain cases. Both AMRT and IMAT showed effective normal tissue sparing without compromising target coverage and delivered a lower total dose to the surrounding normal tissues in some cases.
IMAT provides the most uniform and conformal dose distributions, especially for the cases with large and complex targets, but with a delivery time similar to that of IMRT; whereas AMRT achieves results comparable to IMRT with significantly faster treatment delivery.
Radiation therapy (RT) is the most effective single modality for local control of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and is an important component of therapy for many patients. Many of the historic concepts ...of dose and volume have recently been challenged by the advent of modern imaging and RT planning tools. The International Lymphoma Radiation Oncology Group (ILROG) has developed these guidelines after multinational meetings and analysis of available evidence. The guidelines represent an agreed consensus view of the ILROG steering committee on the use of RT in NHL in the modern era. The roles of reduced volume and reduced doses are addressed, integrating modern imaging with 3-dimensional planning and advanced techniques of RT delivery. In the modern era, in which combined-modality treatment with systemic therapy is appropriate, the previously applied extended-field and involved-field RT techniques that targeted nodal regions have now been replaced by limiting the RT to smaller volumes based solely on detectable nodal involvement at presentation. A new concept, involved-site RT, defines the clinical target volume. For indolent NHL, often treated with RT alone, larger fields should be considered. Newer treatment techniques, including intensity modulated RT, breath holding, image guided RT, and 4-dimensional imaging, should be implemented, and their use is expected to decrease significantly the risk for normal tissue damage while still achieving the primary goal of local tumor control.
Thymic malignancies are the most common tumors of the anterior mediastinum. The benefit of adjuvant radiation therapy for stage II disease remains controversial, and patients treated with adjuvant ...radiation therapy are at risk of late complications, including radiation-induced secondary malignant neoplasms (SMNs), that may reduce the overall benefit of treatment. We assess the risk of predicted SMNs following adjuvant proton radiation therapy compared with photon radiation therapy after resection of stage II thymic malignancies to determine whether proton therapy improves the risk-benefit ratio.
Ten consecutive patients treated with double-scattered proton beam radiation therapy (DS-PBT) were prospectively enrolled in an institutional review board-approved proton registry study. All patients were treated with DS-PBT. Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) plans for comparison were generated. SMN risk was calculated based on organ equivalent dose.
Patients had a median age of 65 years (range, 25-77 years), and 60% were men. All patients had stage II disease, and many had close or positive margins (60%). The median dose was 50.4 Gy (range, 50.4-54.0 Gy) in 1.8-Gy relative biological effectiveness daily fractions. No differences in target coverage were seen with DS-PBT compared with IMRT plans. Significant reductions were seen in mean and volumetric lung, heart, and esophageal doses with DS-PBT compared with IMRT plans (all P≤.01). Significant reductions in SMNs in the lung, breast, esophagus, skin, and stomach were seen with DS-PBT compared with IMRT. For patients with thymoma diagnosed at the median national age, 5 excess secondary malignancies per 100 patients would be avoided by treating them with protons instead of photons.
Treatment with proton therapy can achieve comparable target coverage but significantly reduced doses to critical normal structures, which can lead to fewer predicted SMNs compared with IMRT. By decreasing expected late complications, proton therapy may improve the therapeutic ratio of adjuvant radiation therapy for patients with stage II thymic malignancies.
To compare heart and coronary artery radiation exposure using intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) vs. four-field three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) treatment plans for patients ...with distal esophageal cancer undergoing chemoradiation.
Nineteen patients with distal esophageal cancers treated with IMRT from March 2007 to May 2008 were identified. All patients were treated to 50.4 Gy with five-field IMRT plans. Theoretical 3D-CRT plans with four-field beam arrangements were generated. Dose-volume histograms of the planning target volume, heart, right coronary artery, left coronary artery, and other critical normal tissues were compared between the IMRT and 3D-CRT plans, and selected parameters were statistically evaluated using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test.
Intensity-modulated radiotherapy treatment planning showed significant reduction (p < 0.05) in heart dose over 3D-CRT as assessed by average mean dose (22.9 vs. 28.2 Gy) and V30 (24.8% vs. 61.0%). There was also significant sparing of the right coronary artery (average mean dose, 23.8 Gy vs. 35.5 Gy), whereas the left coronary artery showed no significant improvement (mean dose, 11.2 Gy vs. 9.2 Gy), p = 0.11. There was no significant difference in percentage of total lung volume receiving at least 10, 15, or 20 Gy or in the mean lung dose between the planning methods. There were also no significant differences observed for the kidneys, liver, stomach, or spinal cord. Intensity-modulated radiotherapy achieved a significant improvement in target conformity as measured by the conformality index (ratio of total volume receiving 95% of prescription dose to planning target volume receiving 95% of prescription dose), with the mean conformality index reduced from 1.56 to 1.30 using IMRT.
Treatment of patients with distal esophageal cancer using IMRT significantly decreases the exposure of the heart and right coronary artery when compared with 3D-CRT. Long-term studies are necessary to determine how this will impact on development of coronary artery disease and other cardiac complications.
Most commonly in radiation therapy, treatments are delivered in a co-planar geometry. Numerous advantages have been reported of adding non-coplanar beams to the treatment plan. The aim of this study ...was to compare current state-of-the-art VMAT and CyberKnife treatment plans to that of a novel linac design developed at Stanford which utilizes a static conical beam arrangement that allows the inclusion of a full ring diagnostic CT with shared isocenter with the treatment beams. Four clinical cases, prostate, lung, head/neck, and pediatric brain, were selected and treatment plans were generated with 45° or 60° (to the longitudinal axis of the patient) conical beam IMRT and compared with co-planar 90° VMAT plans. Double cone, with beams entering from both superior and inferior directions, and single cone geometries were evaluated. Plans were optimized in RayStation using an in-house developed script to minimize operator bias between the different techniques. Non-coplanar CyberKnife IMRT plans for the pediatric and prostate case were optimized separately in MultiPlan and compared to conical geometry plans. In the prostate case, increased mean dose to the rectum (2.3-3.7 Gy) and bladder (9.5-14.5 Gy) but decreased dose to the femoral heads (femurs) (7.1-10 Gy) were found with the conical arrangement compared to 90° VMAT. Only minor dosimetric differences were found in the lung case, while selective sparing of organs at risk was found with 45° or 60° conical arrangement in the pediatric brain and head/neck cases. For the prostate case, a reduction in mean doses to the bladder and rectum of 6% (2 Gy) and 18% (5.2 Gy), respectively, was found when comparing the CyberKnife to the 60° conical plan, in favor of the CyberKnife plan, but with an increase in integral dose and reduced conformity. An increase in integral dose and reduced conformity was also found for the pediatric brain case when comparing CyberKnife and 60° conical plan. Minor benefits were found with double cone compared to single cone geometry. Comparable treatment plan quality could be achieved between conical beam arrangement and 90° (coplanar) VMAT and CyberKnife (non-coplanar) IMRT, demonstrating the promise of this novel beam geometry. The use of this beam geometry allows volumetric image-guidance with full ring imaging and a common isocenter for simultaneous treatment and imaging.
To report the application of an adaptive replanning technique for prostate cancer radiotherapy (RT), consisting of two steps: (1) segment aperture morphing (SAM), and (2) segment weight optimization ...(SWO), to account for interfraction variations.
The new "SAM+SWO" scheme was retroactively applied to the daily CT images acquired for 10 prostate cancer patients on a linear accelerator and CT-on-Rails combination during the course of RT. Doses generated by the SAM+SWO scheme based on the daily CT images were compared with doses generated after patient repositioning using the current planning target volume (PTV) margin (5 mm, 3 mm toward rectum) and a reduced margin (2 mm), along with full reoptimization scans based on the daily CT images to evaluate dosimetry benefits.
For all cases studied, the online replanning method provided significantly better target coverage when compared with repositioning with reduced PTV (13% increase in minimum prostate dose) and improved organ sparing when compared with repositioning with regular PTV (13% decrease in the generalized equivalent uniform dose of rectum). The time required to complete the online replanning process was 6 +/- 2 minutes.
The proposed online replanning method can be used to account for interfraction variations for prostate RT with a practically acceptable time frame (5-10 min) and with significant dosimetric benefits. On the basis of this study, the developed online replanning scheme is being implemented in the clinic for prostate RT.
Radiation therapy to the prostate involves increasingly sophisticated delivery techniques and changing fractionation schedules. With a low estimated α/β ratio, a larger dose per fraction would be ...beneficial, with moderate fractionation schedules rapidly becoming a standard of care. The integration of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner and linear accelerator allows for accurate soft tissue tracking with the capacity to replan for the anatomy of the day. Extreme hypofractionation schedules become a possibility using the potentially automated steps of autosegmentation, MRI-only workflow, and real-time adaptive planning. The present report reviews the steps involved in hypofractionated adaptive MRI-guided prostate radiation therapy and addresses the challenges for implementation.
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