SU‐G‐BRA‐16: Target Dose Comparison for Dynamic MLC Tracking and Mid‐ Ventilation Planning in Lung Radiotherapy Subject to Intrafractional Baseline Drifts

Abstract

Purpose:Lung tumor motion during radiotherapy can be accounted for by expanded treatment margins, for example using a mid‐ventilation planning approach, or by localizing the tumor in real‐time and adapting the treatment beam with multileaf collimator (MLC) tracking. This study evaluates the effect of intrafractional changes in the average tumor position (baseline drifts) on these two treatment techniques.Methods:Lung stereotactic treatment plans (9‐beam IMRT, 54Gy/3 fractions, mean treatment time: 9.63min) were generated for three patients: either for delivery with MLC tracking (isotropic GTV‐to‐PTV margin: 2.6mm) or planned with a mid‐ventilation approach and delivered without online motion compensation (GTV‐to‐PTV margin: 4.4‐6.3mm). Delivery to a breathing patient was simulated using DynaTrack, our in‐house tracking and delivery software. Baseline drifts in cranial and posterior direction were simulated at a rate of 0.5, 1.0 or 1.5mm/min. For dose reconstruction, the corresponding 4DCT phase was selected for each time point of the delivery. Baseline drifts were accounted for by rigidly shifting the CT to ensure correct relative beam‐to‐target positioning. Afterwards, the doses delivered to each 4DCT phase were accumulated deformably on the mid‐ventilation phase using research RayStation v4.6 and dose coverage of the GTV was evaluated.Results:When using the mid‐ventilation planning approach, dose coverage of the tumor deteriorated substantially in the presence of baseline drifts. The reduction in D98% coverage of the GTV in a single fraction ranged from 0.4‐1.2, 0.6‐3.3 and 4.5‐6.2Gy, respectively, for the different drift rates. With MLC tracking the GTV D98% coverage remained unchanged (+/− 0.1Gy) regardless of drift.Conclusion:Intrafractional baseline drifts reduce the tumor dose in treatments based on mid‐ventilation planning. In rare, large target baseline drifts tumor dose coverage may drop below the prescription, potentially affecting clinical outcome in hypofractionated treatment protocols. Dynamic MLC tracking preserves tumor dose coverage even in the presence of extreme baseline drifts.We acknowledge financial and technical support of the MLC tracking research from Elekta AB. Research at ICR is supported by CRUK under Programme C33589/A19727 and NHS funding to the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at RMH and ICR. MFF is supported by CRUK under Programme C33589/A19908.