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SU‐E‐T‐515: Field‐In‐Field Compensation Technique Using Multi‐Leaf Collimator to Deliver Total Body Irradiation (TBI) Dose
Author(s) -
Lakeman T,
Wang IZ
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.4888848
Subject(s) - collimator , weighting , nuclear medicine , total body irradiation , dosimetry , medicine , repeatability , compensation (psychology) , mathematics , physics , radiology , optics , surgery , statistics , chemotherapy , cyclophosphamide , psychology , psychoanalysis
Purpose: Total body irradiation (TBI) uses large parallel‐opposed radiation fields to suppress the patient's immune system and eradicate the residual cancer cells in preparation of recipient for bone marrow transplant. The manual placement of lead compensators has been used conventionally to compensate for the varying thickness through the entire body in large‐field TBI. The goal of this study is to pursue utilizing the modern field‐in‐field (FIF) technique with the multi‐leaf collimator (MLC) to more accurately and efficiently deliver dose to patients in need of TBI. Method: Treatment plans utilizing the FIF technique to deliver a total body dose were created retrospectively for patients for whom CT data had been previously acquired. Treatment fields include one pair of opposed open large fields (collimator=45°) with a specific weighting and a succession of smaller fields (collimator=90°) each with their own weighting. The smaller fields are shaped by moving MLC to block the sections of the patient which have already received close to 100% of the prescribed dose. The weighting factors for each of these fields were calculated using the attenuation coefficient of the initial lead compensators and the separation of the patient in different positions in the axial plane. Results: Dose‐volume histograms (DVH) were calculated for evaluating the FIF compensation technique. The maximum body doses calculated from the DVH were reduced from the non‐compensated 179.3% to 148.2% in the FIF plans, indicating a more uniform dose with the FIF compensation. All calculated monitor units were well within clinically acceptable limits and exceeded those of the original lead compensation plan by less than 50 MU (only ~1.1% increase). Conclusion: MLC FIF technique for TBI will not significantly increase the beam on time while it can substantially reduce the compensator setup time and the potential risk of errors in manually placing lead compensators.