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Radiation Oncology
Published in: Radiation Oncology 1/2015

Open Access 01-12-2015 | Research

Tangential volumetric modulated arc therapy technique for left-sided breast cancer radiotherapy

Authors: Tuomas Virén, Janne Heikkilä, Kimmo Myllyoja, Kristiina Koskela, Tapani Lahtinen, Jan Seppälä

Published in: Radiation Oncology | Issue 1/2015

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Abstract

Background

The aim of the present study was to introduce a new restricted tangential volumetric modulated arc therapy (tVMAT) technique for whole breast irradiation and compare its dosimetric properties to other currently used breast cancer radiotherapy techniques.

Method

Ten consecutive women with left-sided breast cancer were enrolled in this retrospective study. Four treatment plans were generated for each patient: 1) standard tangential field-in-field (FinF), 2) tangential intensity modulated radiotherapy (tIMRT), 3) tangential VMAT (tVMAT) with two dual arcs of 50-60° and 4) continuous VMAT (cVMAT) with a dual arc of 240°. The plans were created with Monaco® (tIMRT, tVMAT and cVMAT) and Oncentra® (FinF) treatment planning systems.

Results

With both VMAT techniques significantly higher cardiac avoidance, dose coverage and dose homogenity were achieved when compared with FinF or tIMRT techniques (p < 0.01). VMAT techniques also decreased the high dose areas (above 20 Gy) of ipsilateral lung. There were no significant differences in the mean dose of contralateral breast between the tVMAT, tIMRT and FinF techniques. The dose coverage (V47.5 Gy) was greatest with cVMAT. However, with cVMAT the increase of contralateral breast dose was significant.

Conclusions

The present results support the hypothesis that the introduced tVMAT technique is feasible for treatment of left-sided breast cancer. With tVMAT dose to heart and ipsilateral lung can be reduced and the dose homogeneity can be improved without increasing the dose to contralateral breast or lung.
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Metadata
Title
Tangential volumetric modulated arc therapy technique for left-sided breast cancer radiotherapy
Authors
Tuomas Virén
Janne Heikkilä
Kimmo Myllyoja
Kristiina Koskela
Tapani Lahtinen
Jan Seppälä
Publication date
01-12-2015
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Radiation Oncology / Issue 1/2015
Electronic ISSN: 1748-717X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13014-015-0392-x

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Reviewer acknowledgement

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