Radiation burden from modern radiation therapy techniques including proton therapy for breast cancer treatment - clinical implications

• Main Author: Flejmer, Anna M.
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Linköpings universitet, Avdelningen för kliniska vetenskaper 2016
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-127370; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:isbn:978-91-7685-850-9 (Print)

The purpose of this thesis was to study the clinical implications of modern radiotherapy techniques for breast cancer treatment. This was investigated in several individual studies. Study I investigated the implications of using the analytical anisotropic algorithm (AAA) from the perspective of clinical recommendations for breast cancer radiotherapy. Pencil beam convolution plans of 40 breast cancer patients were recalculated with AAA. The latter plans had a significantly worse coverage of the planning target volume (PTV) with the 93% isodose, higher maximum dose in hotspots, higher volumes of the ipsilateral lung receiving doses below 25 Gy and smaller volumes with doses above 25 Gy. AAA also predicted lower doses to the heart. Study II investigated the implications of using the irregular surface compensator (ISC), an electronic compensation algorithm, in comparison to three‐dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D‐CRT) for breast cancer treatment. Ten breast cancer patients were planned with both techniques. The ISC technique led to better coverage of the clinical target volume of the tumour bed (CTV‐T) and PTV in almost all patients with significant improvement in homogeneity. Study III investigated the feasibility of using scanning pencil beam proton therapy for regional and loco‐regional breast cancer with comparison of ISC photon planning. Ten patients were included in the study, all with dose heterogeneity in the target and/or hotspots in the normal tissues outside the PTV. The proton plans showed comparable or better CTV‐T and PTV coverage, with large reductions in the mean doses to the heart and the ipsilateral lung. Study IV investigated the added value of enhanced inspiration gating (EIG) for proton therapy. Twenty patients were planned on CT datasets acquired during EIG and freebreathing (FB) using photon 3D‐CRT and scanning proton therapy. Proton spot scanning has a high potential to reduce the irradiation of organs‐at‐risk for most patients, beyond what could be achieved with EIG and photon therapy, especially in terms of mean doses to the heart and the left anterior descending artery. Study V investigated the impact of physiological breathing motion during proton radiotherapy for breast cancer. Twelve thoracic patients were planned on CT datasets during breath‐hold at inhalation phase and breath‐hold at exhalation phase. Between inhalation and exhalation phase there were very small differences in dose delivered to the target and cardiovascular structures, with very small clinical implication. The results of these studies showed the potential of various radiotherapy techniques to improve the quality of life for breast cancer patients by limiting the dose burden for normal tissues.