Use of proton beams with breast prostheses and tissue expanders.
Since the early 2000s, a small but rapidly increasing number of patients with breast cancer have been treated with proton beams. Some of these patients have had breast prostheses or tissue expanders in place during their courses of treatment. Procedures must be implemented to plan the treatments of these patients. The density, kilovoltage x-ray computed tomography numbers (kVXCTNs), and proton relative linear stopping powers (pRLSPs) were calculated and measured for several test sample devices. The calculated and measured kVXCTNs of saline were 1% and 2.4% higher than the values for distilled water while the calculated RLSP for saline was within 0.2% of the value for distilled water. The measured kVXCTN and pRLSP of the silicone filling material for the test samples were approximately 1120 and 0.935, respectively. The conversion of kVXCTNs to pRLSPs by the treatment planning system standard tissue conversion function is adequate for saline-filled devices but for silicone-filled devices manual reassignment of the pRLSPs is required.
ProCure Proton Therapy Center, Somerset, NJ. Electronic address: MFMoyers@roadrunner.com.
Michael F
MF
Moyers
ProCure Proton Therapy Center, Somerset, NJ.
Dennis
D
Mah
ProCure Proton Therapy Center, Somerset, NJ.
Sean P
SP
Boyer
ProCure Proton Therapy Center, Somerset, NJ.
Chang
C
Chang
ProCure Proton Therapy Center, Warrenville, IL.
Mark
M
Pankuch
D018427:Breast Implants; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D061766:Proton Therapy; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D011882:Radiotherapy, High-Energy / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015625:Tissue Expansion Devices; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D011522:Protons
D011522:Protons
Breast; Prosthesis; Proton; Stopping power