Comparative skin dose measurement in the treatment of anal canal cancer: conventional versus conformal therapy.

The subject of this work was to compare the effect of Conventional and Conformal techniques, used for anal canal cancer treatments, on the skin dose deposition. Skin dose was measured on a Rando phantom using XR-T GAFCHROMIC film. A skin surface dose histogram was constructed and a skin dose profile in the sagittal direction of the perineal region was measured, for both techniques. The measured skin dose in the anterior and posterior region of the skin exposed to radiation is from two to ten times higher when using a conventional technique. In the perineal region, an 85% of the prescription isodose line spreads over 25% of the perineum for conformal technique as compared to 65% with conventional techniques. In addition, conformal technique dose profiles confine better the anatomical position of the anal verge than conventional techniques. Results presented in this work confirm clinically observed improvement in the radiation-induced dermatitis when using the conformal technique.