Program Information

Investigation of Modulated Electron Arc (MeArc) Therapy for the Treatment of Scalp Tumors

A Eldib

A Eldib^1,2*, L Jin¹ , J Martin¹ , J Li¹ , O Chibani¹ , T Galloway¹ , C Ma¹ , (1) Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, (2) Al-Azhar University , Cairo

Presentations

MO-H-19A-2 Monday 5:15PM - 6:00PM Room: 19A

Purpose: Electron arc therapy has long been proposed as the most suitable technique for the treatment of superficial tumors that follow circularly curved surfaces. However it was challenged by unsuitability of the conventional applicators and the lack of adequate 3-D dose calculation tools for arc electron beams in the treatment planning systems (TPS). Now with the availability of an electron specific multi-leaf collimator (eMLC) and an in-house Monte Carlo (MC) based TPS, we were motivated to investigate more advanced modulated electron arc (MeARC) therapy and its beneficial outcome.

Methods: We initiated the study by a film measurement conducted in a head and neck phantom, where we delivered electron arcs in a step and shoot manner using the light field as a guide to avoid fields abutments. This step was done to insure enough clearance for the arcs with eMLC. MCBEAM and MCPLAN MC codes were used for the treatment head simulation and phantom dose calculation, respectively. Treatment plans were generated for targets drawn in real patient CTs and head and neck phantom. We utilized beams eye view available from a commercial planning system to create beamlets having same isocenter and adjoined at the scalp surface. Then dose-deposition coefficients from those beamlets were calculated for all electron energies using MCPLAN. An in-house optimization code was then used to find the optimum weights needed from individual beamlets.

Results: MeARC showed a nicely tailored dose distribution around the circular curved target on the scalp. Some hot spots were noticed and could be attributed to fields abutment problem owing to the bulging nature of electron profiles. Brain dose was shown to be at lower levels compared to photon treatment.

Conclusion: MeARC was shown to be a promising modality for treating scalp cases and could be beneficial to all superficial tumors with a circular curvature.



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