Dosimetric and radiobiological comparison of simultaneous integrated boost radiotherapy for early stage right side breast cancer between three techniques: IMRT, hybrid IMRT and hybrid VMAT

Abstract

Abstract Purpose This study aimed at evaluating the clinical impact of full intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), hybrid IMRT (H-IMRT) and hybrid volumetric-modulated arc therapy (H-VMAT) for early-stage breast cancer with simultaneous integrated boost (SIB), in terms of plan quality and second cancer risk (SCR). Methods Three different plans were designed in full IMRT, hybrid IMRT, and hybrid VMAT for each of twenty patients with early-stage breast cancer. Target quality, organs at risk (OARs) sparing, and SCR were compared among the three plans for each case. Results In compared with H-IMRT, IMRT plans showed deterioration in terms of D2% of SIB, V10 of ipsilateral lung, and excess absolute risk (EAR) to contralateral lung (C-Lung) and esophagus. D2% and the homogeneity index (HI) of SIB, V5 of ipsilateral lung (I-Lung), the Dmean of the esophagus, the EAR to C-Lung and the esophagus with hybrid VMAT dramatically increased by 0.63%, 10%, 17.99%, 149.27%, 230.41%, and 135.29%, respectively (p = 0.024; 0.025; 0.046; 0.011; 0.000; 0.014). Dmean of the heart, the EAR to contralateral breast (C-Breast) and C-Lung by full IMRT was significantly decreased in comparison to the H-VMAT (4.67%, p = 0.033, 26.76%, p = 0.018; 48.05%, p = 0.036). Conclusion The results confirmed that H-IMRT could achieve better target quality and OARs sparing than IMRT and H-VMAT for SIB radiotherapy of early-stage right breast cancer. H-IMRT was the best treatment option, while H-VMAT performed the worst among the three plans in terms of SCR to peripheral OARs.