Program Information

Validation of Organ Doses Delivered During Craniospinal Irradiation with Helical Tomotherapy

A Perez-Andujar*, J Chen , A Garcia , D Haas-Kogan , University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Presentations

SU-E-T-371 Sunday 3:00PM - 6:00PM Room: Exhibit Hall

Purpose: New techniques have been developed to deliver more conformal treatments to the craniospinal axis. One concern, however, is the widespread low dose delivered and implications for possible late effects. The purpose of this work is for the first time to validate the organ doses calculated by the treatment planning system (TPS), including out-of-field doses for a pediatric craniospinal treatment (CSI).

Methods: A CSI plan prescribed to 23.4 Gy and a posterior fossa boost plan to 30.6 Gy (total dose 54.0 Gy) was developed for a pediatric anthropomorphic phantom representing a 13 year-old-child. For the CSI plan, the planning target volumes (PTV) consisted of the brain and spinal cord with 2 mm and 5 mm expansions, respectively. Organs at risk (OAR) were contoured and included in the plan optimization. The plans were delivered on a helical tomotherapy unit. Thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) were used to measure the dose at 54 positions within the PTV and OARs.

Results: For the CSI treatment, the mean percent difference between TPS dose calculations and measurements was 5% for the PTV and 10% for the OARs. For the boost, the average was 3% for the PTV. The percent difference for the OARs, which lie outside the field and received a small fraction of the prescription dose, varied from 15% to 200%. However in terms of absolute dose, the average difference between measurement and TPS per treatment Gy was 2 cGy/Gy and 3 mGy/Gy for the CSI and boost plans, respectively.

Conclusion: There was good agreement between doses calculated by the TPS and measurements for the CSI treatment. Higher percent differences were observed for out-of-field doses in the boost plan, but absolute dose differences were very small compared to the prescription dose. These findings can help in the estimation of late effects after radiotherapy for pediatric patients.

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