Program Information

Simple Field-In-Field Technique for Total Body Irradiation in Large Patients

P Chi

P Chi*, C Pinnix , B Dabaja , C Wang , M Aristophanous , S Tung , UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

Presentations

SU-E-T-404 Sunday 3:00PM - 6:00PM Room: Exhibit Hall

Purpose: A simple Field-in-Field technique for Total Body Irradiation (TBI) was developed for traditional AP/PA TBI treatments to improve dosimetric uniformity in patients with large separation.

Methods: TBI at our institution currently utilizes an AP/PA technique at an extended source-to-surface distance (SSD) of 380cm with patients in left decubitus position during the AP beam and in right decubitus during the PA beam. Patients who have differences in thickness (separation) between the abdomen and head greater than 10cm undergo CT simulation in both left and right decubitus treatment positions. One plan for each CT is generated to evaluate dose to patient midline with both AP and PA fields, but only corresponding AP fields will be exported for treatment for patient left decubitus position and PA fields for patient right decubitus position. Subfields are added by collimating with the x-ray jaws according to separation changes at 5-7% steps to minimize hot regions to less than 10%. Finally, the monitor units (MUs) for the plans are verified with hand calculation and water phantom measurements.

Results: Dose uniformity (+/-10%) is achieved with field-in-field using only asymmetric jaws. It is dosimetrically robust with respect to minor setup/patient variations inevitable due to patient conditions. MUs calculated with Pinnacle were verified in 3 clinical cases and only a 2% difference was found compared to homogeneous calculation. In-vivo dosimeters were also used to verify doses received by each patient with and confirmed dose variations less than 10%.

Conclusion: We encountered several cases with separation differences that raised uniformity concerns – based on a 1% dose difference per cm separation difference assumption. This could result in an unintended hot spot, often in the head/neck, up to 25%. This method allows dose modulation without adding treatment complexity nor introducing radiobiological variations, providing a reasonable solution for this unique TBI situation.



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