title: Dosimetric evaluation of a simple planning method for improving intensity-modulated radiotherapy for stage III lung cancer.
abstract: This study aimed to evaluate the dosimetric outcomes of a base-dose-plan-compensation (BDPC) planning method for improving intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for stage III lung cancer. For each of the thirteen included patients, three types of planning methods were applied to obtain clinically acceptable plans: (1) the conventional optimization method (CO); (2) a split-target optimization method (STO), in which the optimization objectives were set higher dose for the target with lung density; (3) the BDPC method, which compensated for the optimization-convergence error by further optimization based on the CO plan. The CO, STO and BDPC methods were then compared regarding conformity index (CI), homogeneity index (HI) of the target, organs at risk (OARs) sparing and monitor units (MUs). The BDPC method provided better HI/CI by 54%/7% on average compared to the CO method and by 38%/3% compared to the STO method. The BDPC method also spared most of the OARs by up to 9%. The average MUs of the CO, STO and BDPC plans were 890, 937 and 1023, respectively. Our results indicated that the BDPC method can effectively improve the dose distribution in IMRT for stage III lung cancer, at the expense of more MUs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Jia-Yang
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Zhu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory, Shantou Central Hospital, Affiliated Shantou Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Shantou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Nosocomial Infection Management, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Pei-Xian
authors.initials: PX
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Oncology, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Michael Lok-Man
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Bao-Tian
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D058958:Organs at Risk / Q000528:radiation effects; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D050397:Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome