Effect of reoxygenation on hypofractionated radiotherapy of prostate cancer

To assess the role of reoxygenation of hypoxic tumor cells in hypofractionated radiotherapy of prostate cancer.

The considered radiobiological model is based on the assumption of two populations (compartments) of cells: oxygenated (aerobic) cells and hypoxic cells. After each fraction of radiation, some of the hypoxic cells reoxygenate while a fraction of initially aerobic cells becomes hypoxic. The kinetics of this process between successive treatments is described by coupled, first-order differential equations. To determine the effect of reoxygenation on cell kill in the treatment target, we utilize the linear-quadratic (LQ) model assuming different radiosensitivities for the aerobic and hypoxic cells.

Analytical solutions for the number of surviving malignant cells are obtained for special cases of slow and fast reoxygenation. The radiobiological effect of reoxygenation for different fractionation regimens is also evaluated numerically.

In this study, a radiobiological model for kinetics of reoxygenation in tumors is used to evaluate different fractionation schedules in radiotherapy of prostate cancer. The obtained results indicate that in the case of low alpha/beta ratio for malignant cells (e.g., $$  = 1.5 Gy), treatment schedule with 4-10 fractions and dose per fraction >4-5 Gy can result in increased cell kill in the treatment target at the same level of rectal toxicity as compared to conventional fractionation. The findings of this study also suggest that radiotherapy of the prostate with 1-3 fractions can be radiobiologically inferior to treatments with greater number of fractions.