Assessment and minimization of contralateral breast dose for conventional and intensity modulated breast radiotherapy

Breast radiotherapy is associated with an increased risk of contralateral breast cancer (CBC) in women under age 45 at the time of treatment. This risk increases with increasing absorbed dose to the contralateral breast. The use of intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is expected to substantially reduce the dose to the contralateral breast by eliminating scattered radiation from physical beam modifiers. The absorbed dose to the contralateral breast was measured for 5 common radiotherapy techniques, including paired 15 degrees wedges, lateral 30 degrees wedge only, custom-designed physical compensators, aperture based (field-within-field) IMRT with segments chosen by the planner, and inverse planned IMRT with segments chosen by a leaf sequencing algorithm after dose volume histogram (DVH)-based fluence map optimization. Further reduction in contralateral breast dose through the use of lead shielding was also investigated. While shielding was observed to have the most profound impact on surface dose, the radiotherapy technique proved to be most important in determining internal dose. Paired wedges or compensators result in the highest contralateral breast doses (nearly 10% of the prescription dose on the medial surface), while use of IMRT or removal of the medial wedge results in significantly lower doses. Aperture-based IMRT results in the lowest internal doses, primarily due to the decrease in the number of monitor units required and the associated reduction in leakage dose. The use of aperture-based IMRT reduced the average dose to the contralateral breast by greater than 50% in comparison to wedges or compensators. Combined use of IMRT and 1/8-inch-thick lead shielding reduced the dose to the interior and surface of the contralateral breast by roughly 60% and 85%, respectively. This reduction may warrant the use of IMRT for younger patients who have a statistically significant risk of contralateral breast cancer associated with breast radiotherapy.