Comparison of the dose on specific 3DCT images and the accumulated dose for cardiac structures in esophageal tumors radiotherapy: whether specific 3DCT images can be used for dose assessment?

Yong Yin,Guanzhong Gong,Ying Tong,Ming Su

doi:10.1186/s13014-019-1450-6

Abstract

BackgroundCardiac activity could impact the accuracy of dose assessment for the heart, pericardium and left ventricular myocardium (LVM). The purpose of this study was to explore whether it is possible to perform dose assessment by contouring the cardiac structures on specific three-dimensional computed tomography (3DCT) images to reduce the impact of cardiac activity.MethodsElectrocardiograph-gated 4DCT (ECG-gated 4DCT) images of 22 patients in breath-hold were collected. MIM Maestro 6.8.2 (MIM) was used to reconstruct specific 3DCT images to obtain the Maximal intensity projection (MIP) image, Average intensity projection (AIP) image and Minimum intensity projection (Min-IP) image. The heart, pericardium and LVM were contoured in 20 phases of 4DCT images (0, 5%... 95%) and the MIP, AIP and Min-IP images. Then, a radiotherapy plan was designed at the 0% phase of the 4DCT images, and the dose was transplanted to all phases of 4DCT to acquire the dose on all phases, the accumulated dose of all phases was calculated using MIM. The dose on MIP, AIP and Min-IP images were also obtained by deformable registration of the dose. The mean dose (Dmean), V5, V10, V20, V30 and V40 for the heart, pericardium and LVM in MIP, AIP and Min-IP images were compared with the corresponding parameters after dose accumulation.ResultsThe mean values of the difference between the Dmean in the MIP image and the Dmean after accumulation for the heart, pericardium and LVM were all less than 1.50 Gy, and the dose difference for the pericardium and LVM was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). For dose-volume parameters, there was no statistically significant difference between V5, V10, and V20 of the heart and pericardium in MIP, AIP, and Min-IP images and those after accumulation (p > 0.05). For the LVM, only in the MIP image, the differences of V5, V10, V20, V30 and V40 were not significant compared to those after dose accumulation (p > 0.05).ConclusionsThere was a smallest difference for the dosimetry parameters of cardiac structures on MIP image compared to corresponding parameters after dose accumulation. Therefore, it is recommended to use the MIP image for the delineation and dose assessment of cardiac structures in clinical practice.

Highlights

Radiotherapy plays an important role in the comprehensive treatment of thoracic tumors, such as esophageal cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer [1,2,3,4]
Most studies have mainly focused on the influence of respiratory movement on the treatment accuracy for thoracic tumors and have suggested many schemes to reduce the influence of respiratory movement, such as using Maximal intensity projection (MIP) images to contour the clinic target volume (CTV) and using active breathing control (ABC) or deep inhalation breath holding (DIBH) in the treatment process [8, 11, 12]
On the basis of previous studies, according to the experience with solutions for respiratory movement, this study explored whether it is possible to reconstruct specific three-dimensional computed tomography (3DCT) images, i.e., generating MIP images, Average intensity projection (AIP) images and Minimum intensity projection (Min-IP) images, and contouring the heart, pericardium and left ventricular myocardium (LVM) on these images to perform dose assessment to reduce the impact of cardiac activity, making the dose closer to the accumulated dose considered for cardiac activity

Summary

Introduction

Radiotherapy plays an important role in the comprehensive treatment of thoracic tumors, such as esophageal cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer [1,2,3,4]. In the process of radiotherapy for thoracic tumors, one of the important factors affecting the accuracy of treatment is movement, mainly including respiratory movement and cardiac activity [10]. Most studies have mainly focused on the influence of respiratory movement on the treatment accuracy for thoracic tumors and have suggested many schemes to reduce the influence of respiratory movement, such as using Maximal intensity projection (MIP) images to contour the clinic target volume (CTV) and using active breathing control (ABC) or deep inhalation breath holding (DIBH) in the treatment process [8, 11, 12]. The purpose of this study was to explore whether it is possible to perform dose assessment by contouring the cardiac structures on specific three-dimensional computed tomography (3DCT) images to reduce the impact of cardiac activity

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Discussion

Conclusion