Adaptive radiation therapy for compensation of errors in patient setup and treatment delivery.

In this paper, an adaptive radiation therapy algorithm is derived and evaluated using numerical simulations. Patient setup errors are considered and an off-line adaptive method to compensate for the effect of these is provided. The method consists of two parts, one for correction of patient position to account for the systematic error, and one for modulation of the fluence profiles to account for the random errors. The method is based on standard control theory for linear systems. It is investigated if this adaptive method can replace the use of a planning target volume (PTV) and therefore increase the possibilities to escalate the dose. Numerical simulations of treatments of a prostate patient indicate that this is the case. The simulations show that better organ-at-risk protection can be achieved when using the adaptation algorithm to correct for the geometrical uncertainties than when using a PTV.

Hybrid adaptive radiotherapy with on-line MRI in cervix cancer IMRT.

PURPOSE: Substantial organ motion and tumor shrinkage occur during radiotherapy for cervix cancer. IMRT planning studies have shown that the quality of radiation delivery is influenced by these anatomical changes, therefore the adaptation of treatment plans may be warranted. Image guidance with off-line replanning, i.e. hybrid-adaptation, is recognized as one of the most practical adaptation strategies. In this study, we investigated the effects of soft tissue image guidance using on-line MR while varying the frequency of off-line replanning on the adaptation of cervix IMRT. MATERIALS AND METHOD: 33 cervical cancer patients underwent planning and weekly pelvic MRI scans during radiotherapy. 5 patients of 33 were identified in a previous retrospective adaptive planning study, in which the coverage of gross tumor volume/clinical target volume (GTV/CTV) was not acceptable given single off-line IMRT replan using a 3mm PTV margin with bone matching. These 5 patients and a randomly selected 10 patients from the remaining 28 patients, a total of 15 patients of 33, were considered in this study. Two matching methods for image guidance (bone to bone and soft tissue to dose matrix) and three frequencies of off-line replanning (none, single, and weekly) were simulated and compared with respect to target coverage (cervix, GTV, lower uterus, parametrium, upper vagina, tumor related CTV and elective lymph node CTV) and OAR sparing (bladder, bowel, rectum, and sigmoid). Cost (total process time) and benefit (target coverage) were analyzed for comparison. RESULTS: Hybrid adaptation (image guidance with off-line replanning) significantly enhanced target coverage for both 5 difficult and 10 standard cases. Concerning image guidance, bone matching was short of delivering enough doses for 5 difficult cases even with a weekly off-line replan. Soft tissue image guidance proved successful for all cases except one when single or more frequent replans were utilized in the difficult cases. Cost and benefit analysis preferred (soft tissue) image guidance over (frequent) off-line replanning. CONCLUSIONS: On-line MRI based image guidance (with combination of dose distribution) is a crucial element for a successful hybrid adaptive radiotherapy. Frequent off-line replanning adjuvantly enhances adaptation quality.

Dosimetrically triggered adaptive intensity modulated radiation therapy for cervical cancer.

PURPOSE: The widespread use of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for cervical cancer has been limited by internal target and normal tissue motion. Such motion increases the risk of underdosing the target, especially as planning margins are reduced in an effort to reduce toxicity. This study explored 2 adaptive strategies to mitigate this risk and proposes a new, automated method that minimizes replanning workload. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Thirty patients with cervical cancer participated in a prospective clinical study and underwent pretreatment and weekly magnetic resonance (MR) scans over a 5-week course of daily external beam radiation therapy. Target volumes and organs at risk (OARs) were contoured on each of the scans. Deformable image registration was used to model the accumulated dose (the real dose delivered to the target and OARs) for 2 adaptive replanning scenarios that assumed a very small PTV margin of only 3 mm to account for setup and internal interfractional motion: (1) a preprogrammed, anatomy-driven midtreatment replan (A-IMRT); and (2) a dosimetry-triggered replan driven by target dose accumulation over time (D-IMRT). RESULTS: Across all 30 patients, clinically relevant target dose thresholds failed for 8 patients (27%) if 3-mm margins were used without replanning. A-IMRT failed in only 3 patients and also yielded an additional small reduction in OAR doses at the cost of 30 replans. D-IMRT assured adequate target coverage in all patients, with only 23 replans in 16 patients. CONCLUSIONS: A novel, dosimetry-triggered adaptive IMRT strategy for patients with cervical cancer can minimize the risk of target underdosing in the setting of very small margins and substantial interfractional motion while minimizing programmatic workload and cost.

Automated weekly replanning for intensity-modulated radiotherapy of cervix cancer.

PURPOSE: The adoption of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) to treat cervical malignancies has been limited in part by complex organ and tumor motion during treatment. This study explores the limits of a highly adaptive, small-margin treatment scenario to accommodate this motion. In addition, the dosimetric consequences of organ and tumor motion are modeled using a combination of deformable registration and fractional dose accumulation techniques. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Thirty-three cervix cancer patients had target volumes and organs-at-risk contoured on fused, pretreatment magnetic resonance-computed tomography images and weekly magnetic resonance scans taken during treatment. The dosimetric impact of interfraction organ and target motion was compared for two hypothetical treatment scenarios: a 3-mm margin plan with no replanning, and a 3-mm margin plan with an automated replan performed on the updated weekly patient geometry. RESULTS: Of the 33 patients, 24 (73%) met clinically acceptable target coverage (98% of the clinical target volume receiving at least 95% of the prescription dose) using the 3-mm margin plan without replanning. The range in dose to 98% of the clinical target volume across all patients was 7.9% of the prescription dose if no replanning was performed. After weekly replanning, this range was tightened to 2.6% of the prescription dose and all patients met clinically acceptable target coverage while maintaining organ-at-risk dose sparing. CONCLUSIONS: The dosimetric impact of anatomical motion underscores the challenges of applying IMRT to treat cervix cancer. An appropriate adaptive strategy can ensure target coverage for small-margin IMRT treatments and maintain favorable organ-at-risk dose sparing.

Pelvic radiotherapy for cancer of the cervix: is what you plan actually what you deliver?

PURPOSE: Whole pelvic intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is increasingly being used to treat cervix cancer and other gynecologic tumors. However, tumor and normal organ movement during treatment can substantially detract from the benefits of this approach. This study explored the effect of internal anatomic changes on the dose delivered to the tumor and organs at risk using a strategy integrating deformable soft-tissue modeling with simulated dose accumulation. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Twenty patients with cervix cancer underwent baseline and weekly pelvic magnetic resonance imaging during treatment. Interfraction organ motion and delivered (accumulated) dose was modeled for three treatment scenarios: four-field box, large-margin whole pelvic IMRT (20-mm planning target volume, but 10 mm inferiorly) and small-margin IMRT (5-mm planning target volume). RESULTS: Individually, the planned dose was not the same as the simulated delivered dose; however, when taken as a group, this was not statistically significant for the four-field box and large-margin IMRT plans. The small-margin IMRT plans yielded adequate target coverage in most patients; however, significant target underdosing occurred in 1 patient who displayed excessive, unpredictable internal target movement. The delivered doses to the organs at risk were significantly reduced with the small-margin plan, although substantial variability was present among the patients. CONCLUSION: Simulated dose accumulation might provide a more accurate depiction of the target and organ at risk coverage during fractionated whole pelvic IMRT for cervical cancer. The adequacy of primary tumor coverage using 5-mm planning target volume margins is contingent on the use of daily image-guided setup.