Dose Painting IMRT Using Biological Parameters

Currently, there is great interest in incorporating biological information into intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatment planning with the aim of selectively boosting high-risk tumor subvolumes a concept that has also been called dose painting . However, conventional IMRT optimization utilizes dose-volume based objective functions, which have inherent limitations such as pursuing homogeneous dose distributions and assuming linear-dose-response curves. In this book we present a dose painting IMRT optimization-framework in which nonlinear biological objective functions are utilized. Prostate cancer has been used as a model system to explore its feasibility. The impact of functional imaging accuracy such as sensitivity and specificity on dose painting IMRT is subsequently presented. A comparison study between dose painting IMRT strategies and uniform-boosting IMRT strategies yielding the same EUD to the overall PTV is also presented. A novel dose painting IMRT strategy using biological parameters is proposed and promises increased expected local control for locoregionally advanced tumors with equivalent or better normal tissue sparing.

Autorentext

Prof. Kim (left) earned his Ph.D. in medicalphysics from Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison and works at the Univ. of Iowa. He has over 20 peer-reviewed publications.Prof. Tomé (right) works at Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City and has over 180 peer-reviewed publications to his credit.