Estimation of the risk of secondary cancer in rectum and bladder after radiation therapy for prostate cancer using a feasibility dose–volume histogram

Abstract

We investigated the risk of secondary cancers in rectum and bladder for prostate cancer radiotherapy using a feasibility assessment tool. We calculated the risk of secondary cancer by generating a dose-volume histogram based on an ideal dose falloff function (f-value). This study found a smaller f-value was associated with a lower secondary cancer risk in the rectum but a higher risk in the bladder. The study suggests setting the f-value at 0-0.1 as the optimization goal for the rectum and 0.4 for the bladder is reasonable and feasible for reducing the risk of secondary cancer and other adverse events.

Keywords

• Secondary cancer
• Full mathematical model
• F-value
• Excess absolute risk
• Prostate
• Radiotherapy