A comparison of proton therapy and IMRT treatment plans for prostate radiotherapy

Proton therapy (PT) is becoming a more widely available treatment option on the world stage and there is some interest in investment in this treatment option in Australia. The benefit of PT has been shown for a number of tumour sites, particularly for paediatric patients. The workload from these patients may not completely fill the maximum yearly workload of a machine. This work aims to ascertain if prostate cancer would be a suitable candidate to fill the rest of the workload at an Australian PT facility. Passive and intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) plans were generated for a prostate patient. These were compared to 7 field sliding window and step and shoot IMRT plans. All plans used a prescription dose of 78 CGE. IMRT and IMPT plans used inverse planning for optimisation. Homogeneity in the PTV was best for the IMPT plan. IMPT also gave the best rectal sparing. The bladder and femoral heads were exposed to less dose in both proton plans. Proton plans exposed normal tissue outside the PTV to less than 50% of the dose given by the IMRT plans. PT, particularly IMPT, is a suitable treatment option for the prostate cancer patient presented here.