Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy Improves the Target Coverage Over 3-D Planning While Meeting Lung Tolerance Doses for All Patients With Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma.

PURPOSE

To investigate high conformality on target coverage and the ability on creating strict lung dose limitation of intensity-modulated radiation therapy in malignant pleural mesothelioma.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Twenty-four radiation therapy plannings were evaluated and compared with dosimetric outcomes of conformal radiation therapy and intensity-modulated radiation therapy. Hemithoracal radiation therapy was performed on 12 patients with a fraction of 1.8 Gy to a total dose of 50.4 Gy. All organs at risk were contoured. Radiotherapy plannings were differed according to the technique; conformal radiation therapy was planned with conventionally combined photon-electron fields, and intensity-modulated radiation therapy was planned with 7 to 9 radiation beam angles optimized in inverse planning. Strict dose-volume constraints were applied.

RESULTS

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy was statistically superior in target coverage and dose homogeneity (intensity-modulated radiation therapy-planning target volume 95 mean 100%; 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy-planning target volume 95 mean 71.29%, P = .0001; intensity-modulated radiation therapy-planning target volume 105 mean 11.14%; 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy-planning target volume 105 mean 35.69%, P = .001). The dosimetric results of the remaining lung was below the limitations on intensity-modulated radiation therapy planning data (intensity-modulated radiation therapy-lung mean dose mean 7.5 [range: 5.6%-8.5%]; intensity-modulated radiation therapy-lung V5 mean 55.55% [range: 47%-59.9%]; intensity-modulated radiation therapy-lung V20 mean 4.5% [range: 0.5%-9.5%]; intensity-modulated radiation therapy-lung V13 mean 13.43% [range: 4.2%-22.9%]).

CONCLUSION

With a complex and large target volume of malignant pleural mesothelioma, intensity-modulated radiation therapy has the ability to deliver efficient tumoricidal radiation dose within the safe dose limits of the remaining lung tissue.