Prostate cancer patients who undergo radiotherapy are at an increased risk to develop a radiogenic second cancer.
Proton therapy has been shown to reduce the predicted risk of second cancer when compared to intensity modulated radiotherapy. However, it is unknown if this is also true for the rotational therapies proton arc therapy and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). The objective of this study was to compare the predicted risk of cancer following proton arc therapy and VMAT for prostate cancer. Proton arc therapy and VMAT plans were created for three patients. Various risk models were combined with the dosimetric data (therapeutic and stray dose) to predict the excess relative risk (ERR) of cancer in the bladder and rectum. Ratios of ERR values (RRR) from proton arc therapy and VMAT were calculated. RRR values ranged from 0.74 to 0.99, and all RRR values were shown to be statistically less than 1, except for the value calculated with the linear-non-threshold risk model. We conclude that the predicted risk of cancer in the bladder or rectum following proton arc therapy for prostate cancer is either less than or approximately equal to the risk following VMAT, depending on which risk model is applied.
Written by:
Rechner LA, Howell RM, Zhang R, Etzel C, Lee AK, Newhauser WD. Are you the author?
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX 77030, USA; The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Unit 1210, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Reference: Phys Med Biol. 2012 Nov 7;57(21):7117-32.
doi: 10.1088/0031-9155/57/21/7117
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23051714
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