Report of a study on IMRT planning strategies for ethmoid sinus cancer.
OBJECTIVE
This communication reviews the planning strategies and dose statistics of nine IMRT plans generated for a complex head and neck case.


METHODS
An ethmoid sinus cancer case was sent as an IMRT planning task to all participants of the ESTRO course on "IMRT and Other Conformal Techniques in Practice", held in Amsterdam in June 2001.


RESULTS
Nine IMRT plans were generated for the case, the majority of the plans generated with commercial planning systems. The number of beam incidences ranged between four and eleven, while five of the nine beam setups were coplanar. The planning target volume dose homogeneity was inversely correlated with the degree of sparing of the surrounding organs at risk.


CONCLUSIONS
IMRT strategies for complex head and neck cases, such as ethmoid sinus cancer, can be strikingly different in various aspects, such as beam setup, total number of segments, PTV dose coverage and dose statistics for organs at risks.
Claus
Filip
F
Division of Radiotherapy, Ghent University Hospital, Belgium. filip@krtkg1.rug.ac.be
Mijnheer
Ben
B
Rasch
Coen
C
Bortfeld
Thomas
T
Fraass
Benedick
B
De Gersem
Werner
W
Wirtz
Holger
H
Hoinkis
Cordelia
C
Cho
Byung Chul
BC
Kwong
Lai Wan Dora
LW
Bae
Hoonsik
H
Muller
Karin
K
De Neve
Wilfried
W
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005005:Ethmoid Sinus / Q000473:pathology / Q000528:radiation effects / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010255:Paranasal Sinus Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D020266:Radiotherapy, Conformal; D015203:Reproducibility of Results