Objective Evaluate expected tumor control and normal tissue toxicity for prostate volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) with and without radiation boost to an intraprostatic dominant lesion (IDL) defined by 18F-fluorocholine PET/CT. Methods Thirty patients with localized prostate cancer underwent 18F-fluorocholine PET/CT before treatment. Two VMAT plans, plan79Gy and plan100-105Gy, were compared for each patient. The whole-prostate planning target volume (PTVprostate) was prescribed 79 Gy in both plans, however plan100-105Gy added simultaneous boost doses of 100 Gy and 105 Gy prescribed to IDLs defined by 60% and 70% of maximum prostatic uptake on 18F-fluorocholine PET (IDLsuv60% and IDLsuv70%, respectively, with IDLsuv70% nested inside IDLsuv60% to potentially enhance tumor specificity of the maximum point dose). Plan evaluations included histopathologic correspondence, isodose distributions, dose-volume histograms, tumor control probability (TCP), and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP). Results Planning objectives and dose constraints proved feasible in 30/30 cases. Prostate sextant histopathology was available from 28 cases, confirming that IDLsuv60% adequately covered all tumor-bearing prostate sextants in 27 cases and provided partial coverage in one case. Plan100-105Gy had significantly higher TCP than Plan79Gy across all prostate regions for α/β ratios ranging from 1.5 Gy to 10Gy (p < 0.001 each case). There were no significant differences in bladder and femoral head NTCP between plans, and slightly lower rectal NTCP (endpoint: grade 2+ late toxicity or rectal bleeding) for plan100-105Gy. Conclusion VMAT can potentially increase the likelihood of tumor control in primary prostate cancer while observing normal tissue tolerances through simultaneous delivery of a steep radiation boost to an 18F-fluorocholine PET-defined IDL.

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A high sensitivity (HS) model of radiochromic film is receiving increasing use. The film's linear sensitometric response in the range of 0.5-40 Gy would make this film an ideal candidate for complex dosimetry applications that require tissue equivalence. This study investigates the potential use for clinical dosimetry of typical radiotherapy fractions at relatively low doses (0.5-5 Gy). The experiment involved exposing 25 pre-exposed pieces of HS film to five equal fractions of doses from 0.5 to 5 Gy 24 hours apart. The cumulative dose for each film was carefully monitored and optical density measurements were used as the sole determination of film response to dose. The average behavior of the various fractionation schemes was roughly consistent with previous observations of the MD-55 radiochromic film with about twice the overall sensitivity as expected. However, at low doses and low dose increments, unexpected variations beyond a well-documented low dose nonlinearity were observed. These unexpected variations may indicate complex polymer kinetics at low doses. This type of film would require extra care beyond that described in TG-55 for accurate use at low doses or low dose fraction schemes.