E. Dale et al., Normal tissue complication probabilities correlated with late effects in the rectum after prostate conformal radiotherapy, INT J RAD O, 43(2), 1999, pp. 385-391
Citations number
20
Categorie Soggetti
Radiology ,Nuclear Medicine & Imaging","Onconogenesis & Cancer Research
Journal title
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RADIATION ONCOLOGY BIOLOGY PHYSICS
Purpose: Radiation therapy of deep-sited tumours will always result in norm
al tissue doses to some extent. The aim of this study was to calculate diff
erent risk estimates of late effects in the rectum for a group of cancer pr
ostate patients treated with conformal radiation therapy (CRT) and correlat
e these estimates with the occurrences of late effects. Since the rectum is
a hollow organ, several ways of generating dose-volume distributions over
the organ are possible, and we wanted to investigate two of them.
Methods and Materials: A mathematical model, known as the Lyman-Kutcher mod
el, conventionally used to estimate normal tissue complication probabilitie
s (NTCP) associated with radiation therapy, was applied to a material of 52
cancer prostate patients. The patients were treated with a four field box
technique, with the rectum as organ at risk. Dose-volume histograms (DVH) w
ere generated for the whole rectum (including the cavity) and of the rectum
wall. One to two years after the treatment, the patients completed a quest
ionnaire concerning bowel (rectum) related morbidity quantifying the extent
of late effects.
Results: A correlation analysis using Spearman's rank correlation coefficie
nt, for NTCP values calculated from the DVHs and the patients' scores, gave
correlation coefficients which were not statistically significant at the p
< 0.01 level. The correlation coefficients based on histograms of the whol
e rectum were larger than those derived from histograms of the rectum wall.
Also, simpler descriptive measures as D-max, of the whole rectum, correlat
ed better to observed late toxicity than D-max derived from histograms of t
he rectum wall. Correlation coefficients from "high-dose" measures were lar
ger than those calculated from the NTCP values. Accordingly, as the volume
parameter of the Lyman-Kutcher model was reduced, raising the impact of sma
ll high-dose volumes on the NTCP values, the correlation between observed e
ffects and NTCP values became significant at p < 0.01 level.
Conclusions: 1) High-dose levels corresponding to small volume fractions of
the cumulative dose-volume histograms were best correlated with the occurr
ences of late effects in the rectum as measured with questionnaires. This i
s compatible with a more serial organisation of the rectal tissue architect
ure than previously reported. 2) Reducing the Lyman-Kutcher model's volume
parameter, thus allowing small high-dose regions to determine the NTCP, imp
roved the correlation, but not beyond that of high-dose levels correspondin
g to small volume fractions of the cumulative dose-volume histograms. (C) 1
999 Elsevier Science Inc.