Assessment of residual geometrical errors of clinical target volumes and their impact on dose accumulation for head and neck radiotherapy

Purpose: To assess the residual geometrical errors (dr) and their impact on the clinical target volumes (CTV) dose coverage for head and neck cancer (HNC) proton therapy patients.

Methods: We analysed 28 HNC patients treated with 70 Gy (RBE) and 54.25 Gy (RBE) to the therapeutic CTV₇₀ and prophylactic CTV_54.25, respectively. Daily cone beam CTs were converted to high quality synthetic CTs (sCTs). The CTVs from the nominal CT were propagated to the corresponding sCTs using a hybrid deformable image registration (propagated CTVs) in RayStation 11B. For 11 patients, all propagated CTVs were reviewed by our HNC radiation oncologist (physician corrected CTVs).

The residual geometrical error dr was quantified as a function of the daily CTVs volume overlap with the nominal plan CTV. The errors dr(propagated CTVs) and dr(physician corrected CTVs) and the difference in dice similarity coefficients (ΔDSC) were determined. Using clinical plans, dose coverage and the tumor control probability (TCP) for the nominal, accumulated and voxel-wise minimum scenarios were determined.

Results: The difference in the residual geometrical error dr (propagated CTVs – physician corrected CTVs) and mean DSC (|ΔDSC|mean) were minor: Δdr(CTV₇₀) = 0.16 mm, Δdr(CTV_54.25) = 0.26 mm, |ΔDSC|mean < 0.9%. For all 28 patients, dr(CTV₇₀) = 1.91 mm and dr(CTV_54.25) = 1.90 mm. However, CTV_54.25 above and below the cricoid cartilage differed substantially (1.00 mm c.f. 3.93 mm). The CTV_54.25 coverage below the cricoid was then almost always lower, although the TCP of the accumulated dose was higher than the TCP of the voxel-wise minimum dose.

Conclusions: Setup uncertainty setting of 2 mm is possible. The feasibility of using propagated CTVs for error determination is demonstrated.