Reproducibility of surface-based deep inspiration breath-hold technique for lung stereotactic body radiotherapy on a closed-bore gantry linac

Abstract

Background and purpose: Tumor motion and delivery efficiency are two main challenges of lung stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). The present work implemented the deep inspiration breath hold technique (DIBH) with surface guided radiation therapy (SGRT) on closed-bore linacs and investigated the correlation between SGRT data and internal target position. Materials and methods: Thirteen lung SBRT patients treated in DIBH using a closed-bore gantry linac and a ring-mounted SGRT system were retrospectively analysed. Visual coaching was used to achieve DIBH with a ± 1 mm threshold window in the anterior-posterior direction. Three kV-CBCTs were added to the treatment workflow and examined offline to verify intra-fraction tumor position. Surface-based DIBH was analysed using SGRT treatment reports and an in-house python script. Data from 73 treatment sessions and 175 kV-CBCTs were studied. Correlations between target and surface positions were studied with Linear Mixed Models. Results: Median intra-fraction tumor motion was 0.8 mm (range: 0.7–1.3 mm) in the anterior-posterior direction, 1.2 mm (range: 1–1.7 mm) in the superior-inferior direction, and 1 mm (range: 0.7–1.1 mm) in the left–right direction, with rotations of <1° (range: 0.6°–1.1°) degree in all three directions. Planned target volumes and healthy lung volumes receiving 12.5 Gy and 13.5 Gy were reduced on average by 67% and 54%, respectively. Conclusions: Lung SBRT in DIBH with the ring-mounted SGRT system proved reproducible. The surface monitoring provided by SGRT was found to be a reliable surrogate for internal target motion. Moreover, the implementation of DIBH technique helped reduce target volumes and lung doses.

Keywords

• Deep-inspiration breath-hold
• Lung stereotactic body radiotherapy
• Ring-mounted SGRT system
• Intra-fraction control