Impact of Functional Lung Imaging Using Ventilation/Perfusion SPECT/CT on Planning Objectives in Thoracic Radiation Therapy

Abstract

Standard treatment planning for thoracic radiation does not discriminate between functional and non-functional lung. However, treating the lung as an organ of uniform function can result in inadvertent deposition of radiation dose in functional subregions and relative sparing of non-functional zones. We examined the impact of standard thoracic radiation treatment planning on radiation dose delivered to functional lung as quantified on SPECT/CT ventilation/perfusions scans.