Dosimetric evaluation of 3 and/or 4 field radiation therapy of breast cancers: clinical experience

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:sec id="S1460396920000503_as1" sec-type="other"> <jats:title>Background:</jats:title> <jats:p>Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in Canadian women. Surgery is often the first line of treatment for low-risk early stage patients, followed by adjuvant radiation therapy to reduce the risk of local recurrence and prevent metastasis after lumpectomy or mastectomy. For high-risk patients with node positive disease or are at greater risk of nodal metastasis, radiation therapy will involve treatment of the intact breast or chest-wall as well as the regional lymph nodes.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec id="S1460396920000503_as2" sec-type="other"> <jats:title>Materials and methods:</jats:title> <jats:p>We retrospectively evaluated the treatment plans of 354 patients with breast cancer with nodes positive or were at high risk of nodal involvement treated at our cancer centre. All patients were treated with a prescription dose of 50 Gy in 25 fractions to the intact breast or chest-wall and 50 Gy in 25 fractions to the supraclavicular region and, based on patient suitability and tolerance, were treated either using the deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) or free-breathing (FB) techniques.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec id="S1460396920000503_as3" sec-type="other"> <jats:title>Results:</jats:title> <jats:p>Based on patient suitability and tolerance, 130 (36·7%) patients were treated with DIBH and 224 (63·3%) with FB techniques. There were 169 (47·7%) patients treated with intact breast, whereas 185 (52·3%) were treated for post-mastectomy chest-wall. The mean PTV_eval V<jats:sub>92%</jats:sub>, V<jats:sub>95%</jats:sub>, V<jats:sub>100%</jats:sub> and V<jats:sub>105%</jats:sub> for all patients are 99·4 ± 0·7, 97·6 ± 1·6, 74·8 ± 7·9 and 1·5 ± 3·2%, respectively. The mean ipsilateral lung V<jats:sub>10Gy</jats:sub>, V<jats:sub>20Gy</jats:sub> and V<jats:sub>30Gy</jats:sub> are 30·0 ± 5·3, 22·4 ± 4·7 and 18·4 ± 4·3% for intact breast and 30·9 ± 5·8, 23·5 ± 5·4 and 19·4 ± 5·0% for post-mastectomy patients with FB, respectively. The corresponding values for patients treated using DIBH are 26·3 ± 5·9, 18·9 ± 5·0 and 15·6 ± 4·7% for intact breast and 27·5 ± 6·5, 20·6 ± 5·7 and 17·1 ± 5·2% for post-mastectomy patients, respectively. The mean heart V<jats:sub>10Gy</jats:sub>, V<jats:sub>20Gy</jats:sub>, is 1·8 ± 1·7, 0·9 ± 1·0 for intact breast and 3·1 ± 2·2, 1·7 ± 1·6 for post-mastectomy patients with FB, respectively. The corresponding values with the DIBH are 0·5 ± 0·7, 0·1 ± 0·4 for intact breast and 1·1 ± 1·4, 0·4 ± 0·7 for post-mastectomy patients, respectively.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec id="S1460396920000503_as4" sec-type="other"> <jats:title>Conclusion:</jats:title> <jats:p>The use of 3 and/or 4 field hybrid intensity-modulated radiation therapy technique for radiation therapy of high-risk node positive breast cancer patients provides an efficient and reliable method for achieving superior dose uniformity, conformity and homogeneity in the breast or post-mastectomy chest-wall volume with minimal doses to the organs at risk. The development and implementation of a consistent treatment plan acceptability criteria in radiotherapy programmes would establish an evaluation process to define a consistent, standardised and transparent treatment path for all patients that would reduce significant variations in the acceptability of treatment plans.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

Dosimetric evaluation of VMAT automated breast treatment plans: Towards the establishment of an institutional plan acceptability criteria

“…Well-defined criteria for treatment plan acceptability should be established based on the results from the above-analyzed clinical data. 12, 13 This study tends to evaluate the automated VMAT departmental intact breast/chest-wall planning protocols and to establish plan acceptability criteria for the same.…”