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Imaging prior to radiotherapy impacts in-vitro survival
Peter L Kench1, Linda Rogers2,3, Ana Esteves1
1Discipline of Medical Imaging Science and Brain and Mind Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Physics and Imaging in Radiation Oncology
|January 18, 2021
Summary
Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) imaging before radiotherapy significantly reduced cancer cell survival beyond predicted levels. This suggests CBCT
Area of Science:
- Radiotherapy
- Radiobiology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) is standard for target localization in radiotherapy.
- The potential radiobiological impact of the CBCT imaging dose is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if the radiation dose from CBCT imaging influences radiotherapy outcomes.
- To assess the effect of CBCT dose on in-vitro clonogenic cell survival.
Main Methods:
- Human cancer and normal cell lines were irradiated with a 6 MV photon beam.
- Half of each cell line received a prior CBCT imaging dose.
- A sample size of 103 was used for statistical power.
Main Results:
- Cancer cell survival was reduced ~17 times greater than predicted (p=0.02) in the CBCT group.
- This survival reduction was equivalent to over 5% of the therapeutic dose.
- Normal cell survival reduction was 11 times greater than predicted, but not statistically significant.
Conclusions:
- The additional CBCT dose significantly enhanced cancer cell kill beyond predicted levels.
- This enhanced cell kill is potentially due to radiation-induced bystander effects.
- CBCT imaging dose may have a clinically relevant radiobiological impact.
