Planning strategies for robust carbon-ion scanning radiotherapy for stage I esophageal cancer: a retrospective study

Abstract

Abstract This study aimed to establish a treatment planning strategy with carbon-ion scanning radiotherapy (CIRTs) for stage I esophageal cancer. The clinical data of seven patients treated with CIRTs were used. The setup error and interfractional and intrafractional motion error were analyzed using in-room computed tomography (CT) images for each treatment day. Finally, the planning target volume (PTV) margin was identified according to the accuracy of the treatment system. To ensure robustness against the positional displacements of the target and organs at risk (OAR), the replacement areas were placed as a contour adjacent to the tumor or OAR on the CT-image. The CT values of these areas were replaced by those of the target or OAR. Further, the dose distributions were optimized. Moreover, the variations in the target coverage from the initial plan for each treatment day (ΔV95%) were evaluated. By contrast, the risk of OAR was not evaluated in this study. The setup error was within 1.0 mm. The interfractional and intrafractional target motion errors were 2.8 and 5.0 mm, respectively. The PTV margins were 6.5 and 6.8 mm in the axial and depth directions, respectively. The robustness to target and OAR displacement was evaluated. The results showed that the target coverage with replacement could suppress decreased target coverage more than that without replacement. The PTV determination and replacement methods used in this study improved the target coverage in CIRTs for stage I esophageal cancer. Despite the need for a clinical follow-up, this method may help to improve clinical outcomes.