OBJECTIVE :
• Deliver uniform dose distribution throughout target volume
• ensure adequate tumor coverage
• minimize doses to normal tissue
TECHNIQUE FOR RADIOTHERAPY
Positioning
Immobilization
Simulation
Target Volume
Treatment Planning
Dose & Fractionation
Set Up Verification
Sequelae Of Radiotherapy
Positioning & Immobilization
most crucial parts of RT treatment for
accurate delivery of a prescribed radiation dose
sparing surrounding critical tissues
primary goal:
1) reproducibility of position
2) reduce positioning errors
other benefits :
1) can reduce time for daily set up.
2) make patient feel more secure & less apprehensive.
3) help to stabilize relationship between external skin marks & internal structures
TREATMENT POSITION
• Most important aspect of positioning - patient comfort & reproducibility.
Supine
Prone
Older techniques
Lateral
erect
Positioning devices
• Breast board
• Wing board
Breast Board
patient immobilized for breast irradiation on a slant board with custom mold
POSITION OF ARMS
• The preferred arm position is bilateral arms to be abducted 90 degrees or greater & externally
rotated
• Arm elevation required to facilitate tangential fields across the chest wall without irradiating the
arm.
• Upper border –
• when supra clavicular field used - 2nd ICS (angle of Louis)
When SCF not irradiated – head of clavicle
If tangential field separation is >22 cm :significant dose inhomogeneity in the breast
So higher-energy photons (10 to 18 MV) can be used to deliver a portion of the
breast radiation (approximately 50%) as determined with treatment planning to
maintain the inhomogeneity throughout the entire breast to between 93 and 105%.
IMRT techniques such as field-in-field or dynamic multileaf collimators (MLCs)
may be utilized to reduce dose inhomogeneity
Dose of radiation
Whole breast radiotherapy/chest wall irradiation
• Conventional Dose
• 50 Gy in 25 daily fractions given in 5 weeks
• Hypofractionated dose schedule
• 40 Gy in 15 daily fractions of 2.67 Gy given in 3 weeks.
• 42.5 Gy in 16 daily frac ons of 2.66 Gy given in 31⁄2 weeks.
Breast boost irradiation to Tumour bed
• 16 Gy in 8 daily fractions given in 1.5 weeks.
• 10 Gy in 5 daily fractions given in 1 week
Lymph node irradiation
• 50 Gy in 25 daily fractions given in 5 weeks
• 40 Gy in 15 daily fractions of 2.67 Gy given in 3 weeks.
Perez & Brady's Principles and Practice of Radiation Oncology, chapter 56, p1089
Doses To Heart & Lung By Tangential Fields
• MLD: maximum perpendicular distance from the posterior tangential field edge to the
posterior part of the anterior chest wall
Central lung distance marked on the digitally reconstructed radiograph (a) and on
the central axial slice (b)
Central lung distance
• Best predictor of %age of ipsilateral lung vol.
treated by tangential fields
In very large breasts, bitangentials are unable to cover the target volume
without significantly increasing the volume of OARs irradiated.
angle the central axes slightly more than 180⁰
half beam block technique.
• Contouring
• Field set up
Field arrangement:
Two tangential fields for breast
Add some wedges
– Usually 15° for breast tangential fields
Field arrangement:
Tangential fields : Why ???
Gantry angles –minimize irradiated lung volume
IMRT Breast:
• Dosimetric advantages:
Disadvantages:
- May increase the volume of tissue exposed to lower doses of radiation.
- May increase the risk of second malignancies
• Reduces the hotspots specially in
the superior and inframammary
portions of the breast.
Increases homogenity
INVERSE PLANNING
Inverse planning is a technique using a computer program to
automatically achieve a treatment plan which has an optimal merit.
target doses & OAR constraints are set
Then, an optimisation program is run to find the treatment plan which
best matches all the input criteria.
Forward planning IMRT: Field within Field
• Advancement to conventional 3DCRT
• In this technique a pair of conventional open tangential fields is produced first
• MLCs are used to shape the fields & spare OARs
• Wedge angle & relative weight of beams optimized to produce plan
• To ovoid hotspots and large doses to OAR & to obtain a homogenous dose
distribution (range 95-107%) the dose delivered with open fields is reduced to 90-
93% of total dose
• new tangential beam with same gantry & wedge angles are designed for remaining
dose
• The new reduced field are shaped to exclude areas receiving more than 105% of
dose.
• The other approach is to delineate regions of non uniform dose by contouring
isodose lines
Forward planned IMRT (field-in-field) is preferred
• Breast dosimetry can be significantly improved
• Better cosmetic outcomes
• simple method
• Less MU
• Less scatter
• Decreased planning time
• Decreased treatment time
Forward plan IMRT
The FIF plan improved dose homogeneity,
conformity and uniformity within the whole
breast tissue in comparison with the TWB plan.
The FIF plan also reduced the lung or heart
volume receiving radiation doses that can in
duce radiation-related late toxicities. The FIF
plan is a simple and clinically useful technique
for whole breast irradiation.