Dosimetric robustness of lung tumor photon radiotherapy evaluated from multiple event CT imaging

Intrafractional respiratory motion is a concern for lung tumor radiotherapy but full evaluation of its impact is hampered by the lack of images representing the true motion. This study presents a novel evaluation using free-breathing images acquired over realistic treatment times to study the dosimetric impact of respiratory motion in photon radiotherapy.

Cine-CT images of 14 patients with lung cancer acquired during eight minutes of free-breathing at three occasions were used to simulate dose tracking of four different planning methods. These methods aimed to deliver 54 Gy in three fractions to D_50% of the target and were denoted as robust 4D (RB4), homogeneous fluence to the ITV (FLU) and an isodose prescription to the ITV with a high central dose (ISD), concurrently renormalized (IRN). Differences in dose coverage probability and homogeneity between the methods were quantified. Correlations between underdosage and attributes regarding the tumor and its motion were investigated.

Despite tumor motion amplitudes being larger than in the 4DCT all but FLU achieved the intended CTV D_50% for the cohort average. For all methods but IRN at least 93% of the patients would have received 95% of the intended dose. No differences in D_50% were found between RB4 and ISD nor IRN. However, RB4 led to better homogeneity.

Tumor motion in free-breathing not covered by the 4DCT had a small impact on dose. The RB4 is recommended for planning of free-breathing treatments. No factor was found that consistently correlated dose degradation with patient or motion attributes.