Effect of radiotherapy volume and dose on secondary cancer risk in stage I testicular seminoma.

PURPOSE

To estimate and compare the secondary cancer risk (SCR) due to para-aortic (PA), dogleg field (DLF), or extensive field (EF) radiotherapy (RT) at different dose levels for Stage I testicular seminoma.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

The organ equivalent dose concept with a linear, plateau, and linear-exponential dose-response model was applied to the dose distributions to estimate the SCR. The dose distributions were calculated in a voxel-based anthropomorphic phantom. Three different three-dimensional plans were computed: PA, DLF, and EF. The plans were calculated with 6-MV photons and two opposed fields, using 20 Gy in 10 fractions.

RESULTS

The estimated cumulative SCR for a 75-year-old patient treated with PA-RT at age 35 was 23.3% (linear model), 20.9% (plateau model), and 20.8% (linear-exponential model) compared with 19.8% for the general population. Dependent on the model, PA-RT compared with DLF-RT reduced the SCR by 48-63% or 64-69% when normalized to EF-RT. For PA-RT, the linear dose-response model predicted a decrease of 45% in the SCR, using 20 Gy instead of 30 Gy; the linear-exponential dose-response model predicted no change in SCR.

CONCLUSION

Our model suggested that the SCR after PA-RT for Stage I testicular seminoma is reduced by approximately one-half to two-thirds compared with DLF-RT, independent of the dose-response model. The SCR is expected to be equal or lower with 20 Gy than with 30 Gy. In the absence of mature patient data, the organ equivalent dose concept offers the best potential method of estimating the SCR when discussing treatment options with patients.