Under conditions of large geometric miss, tumor control probability can be higher for static gantry intensity-modulated radiation therapy compared to volume-modulated arc therapy for prostate cancer

External beam radiation therapy treatment factors prognostic of biochemical failure free survival: a multi-institutional retrospective study for prostate cancer

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The goal of this work is to identify specific treatment planning and delivery features that are prognostic of biochemical failure-free survival (BFFS) for prostate cancer patients treated with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study reviewed patients diagnosed with localized prostate adenocarcinoma between 2005 and 2016, and treated with EBRT on a Varian linear accelerator at one of the four cancer centers in Alberta, Canada. BFFS was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier estimator. Patient demographics, tumor characteristics, and EBRT treatment planning and delivery factors, were collected for each patient. The patient cohort was split into a training dataset with patients from two centers and a validation dataset with patients from another two centers. A random survival forest was used to identify features associated with BFFS.

RESULTS

This study included 2827 patients with a median follow-up of 6.4 years. The BFFS for this cohort collectively was 84.9% at 5 years and 69.3% at 10 years. 2519 patients from two centers were used for model training and 308 patients from two different centers were used for model validation. The prognostic features were Gleason score, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) at diagnosis, clinical T stage, CTV D99, pelvic irradiation, IGRT frequency, and PTV V98. Variables including bladder volume, dose calculation algorithm, PTV D99, age at diagnosis, hip prosthesis, number of malignancies, fiducial marker usage, PTV volume, RT modality, PTV HI, rectal volume, hormone treatment, PTV D1cc, equivalent PTV margin, IGRT type, and EQD2_1.5 were unlikely to be prognostic. A random survival forest using only the seven prognostic variables was built. The Harrell's concordance index for the model was 0.65 for the whole training dataset, 0.62 for out-of-bag samples of the training dataset, and 0.62 for the validation dataset.

CONCLUSION

EBRT features prognostic of BFFS were identified and a random survival forest was developed for predicting prostate cancer patients' BFFS after EBRT.

Impact of changes in body contours on radiation therapy dose distribution after uterine cervical cancer surgery

PURPOSE

Patients receiving postoperative irradiation for uterine cervical cancer might not be able to eat during radiation therapy because of the effects of concurrent chemo-radiotherapy; this may lead to changes in the patient's body shape during treatment. When performing image-guided radiotherapy, it is necessary to determine immediately whether treatment can be performed on the day or whether re-planning is required. The purpose of this study was to determine indicators for re-planning by examining the effects of changing body contours on radiation therapy dose.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The original body contour was reduced by 1 cm in the front portion (structure-set 1). Based on the original dose distribution, the dose recalculation was performed with a structure set created using the body contour of structure-set 1. The difference between the original and recalculated dose distributions of structure-set 1 was evaluated through gamma analysis (GA).

RESULT

In the GA results for dose distribution obtained via recalculation with structure-set 1, a pass rate of 90% or more was obtained for a criterion of 2 mm/2% in all cases.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that dose re-planning is rarely required when the body shape is reduced by only 1 cm in the front.

Dosimetric effect of body contour changes for prostate and head and neck volumetric modulated arc therapy plans

Body contour changes are commonly seen in prostate and head and neck (H&N) patients undergoing volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) treatments, which may cause a discrepancy between the planned dose and the delivered dose. Dosimetrists, radiation oncologists or medical physicists sometimes are required to visually assess the dosimetric impact of body contour changes and make a judgment call on whether further re‐assessment of the plan is needed. However, an intuitive judgment cannot always be made in a timely manner due to the complexity of VMAT plans as well as the complicated forms of body contour changes. This study evaluated the dosimetric effect of body contour changes for prostate and H&N patients to help with clinical decision‐making. By analyzing the one‐dimensional spatial dose profiles from the original body and the body with different body contour deformations, rules of thumb for dose percentage change and isodose line shift due to body contour changes were ascertained. Moreover, based on dose distribution comparison using three‐dimensional gamma analysis, the response of the clinical prostate and H&N VMAT plans to body contour changes was assessed. Within center specific dose deviation tolerances, prostate patients who had less than 2 cm single side body contour change or less than 1 cm uniform body contour change were unlikely to need plan re‐assessment; H&N VMAT plans with less than 1 cm uniform body contour change or less than 1 cm shoulder superior–inferior positional change were also unlikely to trigger further evaluation. Dose percentage change and isodose line shift were considered independently from the problem of volume changes in this study, but clinically, both aspects must be considered.