Program Information

Dose Escalation Strategy for Lung Cancer Patients Using a Biologically-Guided Target Definition

N Shusharina*, F Khan , N Choi , G Sharp , Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

Presentations

SU-E-T-500 Sunday 3:00PM - 6:00PM Room: Exhibit Hall

Purpose: Dose escalation strategy for lung cancer patients can lead to late symptoms such as pneumonitis and cardiac injury. We propose a strategy to increase radiation dose for improving local tumor control while simultaneously striving to minimize the injury of organs at risk (OAR). Our strategy is based on defining a small, biologically-guided target volume for receiving additional radiation dose.

Methods: 106 patients with lung cancer treated with radiotherapy were selected for patients diagnosed with stage II and III disease. Previous research has shown that 50% of the maximum SUV threshold in FDG-PET imaging is appropriate for delineation of the most aggressive part of a tumor. After PET- and CT-derived targets were contoured, an IMRT treatment plan was designed to deliver 60 Gy to the GTV as delineated on a 4D CT (Plan 1). A second plan was designed with additional dose of 18 Gy to the PET-derived volume (Plan 2). A composite plan was generated by the addition of Plan 1 and Plan 2.

Results: Plan 1 was compared to the composite plan and increases in OAR dose were assessed. For seven patients on average, lung V5 was increased by 1.4% and V20 by 4.2% for ipsilateral lung and by 13.5% and 7% for contralateral lung. For total lung, V5 and V20 were increased by 4.5% and 4.8% respectively. Mean lung dose was increased by 9.7% for the total lung. The maximum dose to the spinal cord increased by 16% on average. For the heart, V20 increased by 4.2% and V40 by 5.2%.

Conclusion: It seems feasible that an additional 18 Gy of radiation dose can be delivered to FDG PET-derived subvolume of the CT-based GTV of the primary tumor without significant increase in total dose to the critical organs such as lungs, spinal cord and heart.

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