Functional lung imaging in thoracic cancer radiotherapy

Area of Science:

• Radiotherapy
• Pulmonary Imaging
• Thoracic Oncology

Background:

• Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.
• Radiotherapy is a common lung cancer treatment.
• Radiation can cause pulmonary toxicity, especially in patients with pre-existing lung disease.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review techniques for assessing pulmonary ventilation and perfusion.
• To explore methods for incorporating functional lung information into radiotherapy planning.
• To reduce radiation-induced lung damage.

Main Methods:

• Review of nuclear medicine, MRI, and CT techniques for pulmonary assessment.
• Discussion of 3D ventilation map generation using deformable image registration of 4D CT data.

Main Results:

• Several imaging techniques show potential for radiotherapy planning.
• 3D ventilation mapping offers a promising approach to spare functional lung volumes.
• Current methods lack the ability to account for non-uniform lung function.

Conclusions:

• Pulmonary functional imaging holds promise for reducing radiation-induced pulmonary toxicity.
• Future clinical integration of these techniques in radiation oncology is anticipated.
• Sparing better perfused/ventilated lung regions can improve treatment safety.