Comparison of intensity modulated radiotherapy treatment plans between 1.5 T MR-Linac and conventional linac

Abstract

Background To assess the dosimetric qualities and usability of planning for 1.5 T MR-Linac based intensity modulated radiotherapy (MRL-IMRT) for various clinical sites in comparison with IMRT plans using a conventional linac.Methods In total of 17 patients with disease sites in the brain, esophagus, lung, rectum and vertebra were re-planned retrospectively for simulated MRL-IMRT using the Elekta Unity dedicated treatment planning system (TPS) Monaco (v5.40.01). Currently, the step-and-shoot (ss) is the only delivery technique for IMRT available on Unity. All patients were treated on an Elekta Versa HD™ with IMRT using the dynamic multileaf collimator (dMLC) technique, and the plans were designed using Monaco v5.11. For comparison, the same dMLC-IMRT plan was recalculated with the same machine and TPS but only changing the technique to step-and-shoot. The dosimetric qualities of the MRL-IMRT plans, to be evaluated by the Dose Volume Histograms (DVH) metrics, Homogeneity Index and Conformity Index, were compared with the clinical plans. The planning usability was measured by the optimization time and the number of Monitor Units (MUs).Results Comparing MRL-IMRT with conventional linac based plans, there were no clinically significant differences between any of the DVH parameters studied for multiple tumor sites. However, MRL-IMRT plans had significantly increased dose to skin and low dose region of normal tissue. Furthermore, MRL-IMRT plans had significantly reduced optimization time by comparing conventional linac based plans. The number of MUs of MRL-IMRT was increased by 23% compared with ss-IMRT, and no difference from dMLC-IMRT.Conclusions Clinically acceptable plans can be achieved with 1.5 T MR-Linac system for multiple tumor sites. The planning efficiency of MRL-IMRT was improved due to the reduced optimization time. However the increase in skin dose and low dose region was also observed in MRL-IMRT plans.