Dosimetric Comparison of Helical Tomotherapy and HyperArc Treatment Plans for Angiosarcoma of the Scalp.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Angiosarcoma of the scalp (AS) is a rare tumor that has often been treated by total scalp irradiation (TSI). TSI has technical and dosimetric challenges. This study aimed to compare the dosimetric performance of helical tomotherapy (HT) plans with that of HyperArc (HA) plans for TSI in AS.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

A planning study was conducted for 11 patients with AS (70 Gy/35 fr). HT and HA planning was performed using TomoHDA and TrueBeam Edge systems, respectively. The performance of three different plans were compared: HT, HA, and HA with half-field beams (HF-HA). The dose distribution and dosimetric parameters for each plan were evaluated.

RESULTS

All constraint parameters for the target and organs at risk (OARs) met the goals within acceptable limits for the three techniques. The HA and HF-HA plans provided significantly lower mean brain dose (12.46±2.48 Gy and 8.02±1.48 Gy) than did the HT plan (17.59±3.47 Gy). The doses receiving 0.1 cc of the volume for brainstem and chiasm were significantly lower in the HA and HF-HA plans than those in the HT plan. The HA and HF-HA plans provided a shorter beam-on time (155±3 s and 181±14 s) than did the HT plan (962±221 s).

CONCLUSION

The HA plan provided significantly better OARs sparing than the HT plan for TSI in AS and had an advantage to using half-field beams.