SU-E-J-116: Uncertainties Associated with Dose Summation of High-Dose Rate Brachytherapy and Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy for Gynecological Cases

Journal Article · Mon Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · Medical Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1118/1.4924203· OSTI ID:22494131

Kauweloa, K; Bergamo, A; Gutierrez, A; Stathakis, S; Papanikolaou, N; Kirby, N ^[1]; Mavroidis, P ^[2]

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1. University of Texas HSC SA, San Antonio, TX (United States)
2. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (United States)

Purpose: Determining the cumulative dose distribution (CDD) for gynecological patients treated with both high-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy and intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is challenging. The purpose of this work is to study the uncertainty of performing this with a structure-guided deformable (SGD) approach in Velocity. Methods: For SGD, the Hounsfield units inside specified contours are overridden to set uniform values. Deformable image registration (DIR) is the run on these process images, which forces the DIR to focus on these contour boundaries. 18 gynecological cancer patients were used in this study. The original bladder and rectum planning contours for these patients were used to drive the SGD. A second set of contours were made of the bladder by the same person with the intent of carefully making them completely consistent with each other. This second set was utilized to evaluate the spatial accuracy of the SGD. The determined spatial accuracy was then multiplied by the local dose gradient to determine a dose uncertainty associated with the SGD dose warping. The normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) was then calculated for each dose volume histogram (DVH) that included four different probabilistic uncertainties associated with the spatial errors (e.g., 68.3% and 95.4%). Results: The NTCPs for each DVH (e.g., NTCP-−95.4%, NTCP-−68.3%, NTCP-68.3%, NTCP-95.4%) differed amongst patients. All patients had an NTCP-−95.4% close to 0%, while NTCP-95.4% ranged from 0.67% to 100%. Nine patients had an NTCP-−95.4% less than 50% while the remaining nine patients had NTCP-95.4% greater than 50%. Conclusion: The uncertainty associated with this CDD technique renders a large NTCP uncertainty. Thus, it is currently not practical for clinical use. The two ways to improve this would be to use more precise contours to drive the SGD and to use a more accurate DIR algorithm.

• OSTI ID: 22494131
• Journal Information: Medical Physics, Journal Name: Medical Physics Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 42; ISSN 0094-2405; ISSN MPHYA6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES
ACCURACY
ALGORITHMS
ANIMAL TISSUES
BLADDER
BRACHYTHERAPY
DOSE RATES
IMAGES
NEOPLASMS
PATIENTS
PROBABILISTIC ESTIMATION
RADIATION DOSE DISTRIBUTIONS
RADIATION DOSES
RECTUM