scholarly journals Role of MRI-Based Functional Imaging in Improving the Therapeutic Index of Radiotherapy in Cancer Treatment

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Li ◽  
Qin Zhang ◽  
Kaixuan Yang

Advances in radiation technology, such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), have largely enabled a biological dose escalation of the target volume (TV) and reduce the dose to adjacent tissues or organs at risk (OARs). However, the risk of radiation-induced injury increases as more radiation dose utilized during radiation therapy (RT), which predominantly limits further increases in TV dose distribution and reduces the local control rate. Thus, the accurate target delineation is crucial. Recently, technological improvements for precise target delineation have obtained more attention in the field of RT. The addition of functional imaging to RT can provide a more accurate anatomy of the tumor and normal tissues (such as location and size), along with biological information that aids to optimize the therapeutic index (TI) of RT. In this review, we discuss the application of some common MRI-based functional imaging techniques in clinical practice. In addition, we summarize the main challenges and prospects of these imaging technologies, expecting more inspiring developments and more productive research paths in the near future.

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Buckey ◽  
Gregory Swanson ◽  
Sotirios Stathakis ◽  
Nikos Papanikolaou

AbstractBackground and Purpose: Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is considered by many to be the standard of care in the delivery of external-beam radiotherapy treatments to the prostate. The purpose of this study is to assess the validity of the purported benefits of IMRT.Materials and Methods: Treatment plans were produced for 10 patients using both 3D conformal radiation therapy (3D-CRT) and IMRT, utilising the dose constraints recommended by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0415 protocol. Three IMRT modalities used in this study were linear accelerator based IMRT, helical tomotherapy, and serial tomotherapy. The prescription to the target, 76 Gy, was the same for all plans.Results: In general the 3D-CRT plans satisfied the RTOG criteria for planning target volume (PTV) coverage, and met or bettered the dose criteria for the organs at risk. PTV coverage was more homogeneous for the IMRT plans than the 3D-CRT plans but not significantly improved.Conclusions: Technically, because the IMRT plans required greater effort for the optimisation, longer treatment times and higher monitor units, the use of IMRT for the fulfilment of the protocol’s dosimetric goals was not justified using these constraints.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1614
Author(s):  
Ken-ichiro Matsumoto ◽  
James B. Mitchell ◽  
Murali C. Krishna

Radiation therapy is one of the main modalities to treat cancer/tumor. The response to radiation therapy, however, can be influenced by physiological and/or pathological conditions in the target tissues, especially by the low partial oxygen pressure and altered redox status in cancer/tumor tissues. Visualizing such cancer/tumor patho-physiological microenvironment would be a useful not only for planning radiotherapy but also to detect cancer/tumor in an earlier stage. Tumor hypoxia could be sensed by positron emission tomography (PET), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) oxygen mapping, and in vivo dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) MRI. Tissue oxygenation could be visualized on a real-time basis by blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) and/or tissue oxygen level dependent (TOLD) MRI signal. EPR imaging (EPRI) and/or T1-weighted MRI techniques can visualize tissue redox status non-invasively based on paramagnetic and diamagnetic conversions of nitroxyl radical contrast agent. 13C-DNP MRI can visualize glycometabolism of tumor/cancer tissues. Accurate co-registration of those multimodal images could make mechanisms of drug and/or relation of resulted biological effects clear. A multimodal instrument, such as PET-MRI, may have another possibility to link multiple functions. Functional imaging techniques individually developed to date have been converged on the concept of theranostics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Yanqiu Zhang ◽  
A’meng Han ◽  
Zhanzhao Fu ◽  
Shufeng Xu ◽  
Zijian Zhang

Currently, studies about PORT in stage IIIA-N2 NSCLC patients in recent years have mostly adopted the conformal radiation therapy (CRT) technique, while other modern techniques such as intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT, hereinafter referred to as ARC), helical tomotherapy (HT), and so forth are also developing quickly. In this paper, we intended to compare the dosimetric characteristics of CRT, IMRT, ARC, CRT+IMRT, and CRT+ARC of PORT in stage IIIA-N2 NSCLC patients. Ten patients with stage IIIA-N2 completely resected NSCLC, whom were treated by PORT in the radiotherapy department of our hospital from January 1, 2017, to January 1, 2018, were randomly selected in this study. For each patient, the CRT plan, IMRT plan, ARC plan, CRT+IMRT plan, and CRT+ARC plan were designed separately on the same set of CT images. The isodose distribution and dose-volume histogram (DVH) of the five plans were compared to determine the dosimetric parameters of the targets, OAR (organs at risk), and the normal tissue (defined as body subtracted to PTV (planning target volume), B-P). No plan had absolute dosimetry advantages than any other plans. In clinical practice, the plans could be chosen according to their dosimetry characteristics.


2022 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaru Pang ◽  
Hui Wang ◽  
He Li

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) has been used for high-accurate physical dose distribution sculpture and employed to modulate different dose levels into Gross Tumor Volume (GTV), Clinical Target Volume (CTV) and Planning Target Volume (PTV). GTV, CTV and PTV can be prescribed at different dose levels, however, there is an emphasis that their dose distributions need to be uniform, despite the fact that most types of tumour are heterogeneous. With traditional radiomics and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, we can identify biological target volume from functional images against conventional GTV derived from anatomical imaging. Functional imaging, such as multi parameter MRI and PET can be used to implement dose painting, which allows us to achieve dose escalation by increasing doses in certain areas that are therapy-resistant in the GTV and reducing doses in less aggressive areas. In this review, we firstly discuss several quantitative functional imaging techniques including PET-CT and multi-parameter MRI. Furthermore, theoretical and experimental comparisons for dose painting by contours (DPBC) and dose painting by numbers (DPBN), along with outcome analysis after dose painting are provided. The state-of-the-art AI-based biomarker diagnosis techniques is reviewed. Finally, we conclude major challenges and future directions in AI-based biomarkers to improve cancer diagnosis and radiotherapy treatment.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0259112
Author(s):  
Valeria Meier ◽  
Felicitas Czichon ◽  
Linda Walsh ◽  
Carla Rohrer Bley

Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) introduced marked changes to cancer treatment in animals by reducing dose to organs at risk (OAR). As the next technological step, volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) has advantages (increased degrees-of-freedom, faster delivery) compared to fixed-field IMRT. Our objective was to investigate a possible advantage of VMAT over IMRT in terms of lower OAR doses in advanced-disease sinonasal tumors in dogs treated with simultaneously-integrated boost radiotherapy. A retrospective, analytical, observational study design was applied using 10 pre-existing computed tomography datasets on dogs with stage 4 sinonasal tumors. Each dataset was planned with both, 5-field IMRT and 2 arc VMAT with 10x4.83 Gy to the gross tumor volume and 10x4.2 Gy to the planning target volume. Adequate target dose coverage and normal tissue complication probability of brain ≤5% was required. Dose constraints aspired to were D60 <15 Gy for eyes, D2 <35.4 Gy for corneae, and Dmean <20 Gy for lacrimal glands. OAR dose was statistically significantly higher in IMRT plans than in VMAT plans. Median eye D60% was 18.5 Gy (interquartile range (IQR) 17.5) versus 16.1 Gy (IQR 7.4) (p = 0.007), median lacrimal gland dose 21.8 Gy (IQR 20.5) versus 18.6 Gy (IQR 7.0) (p = 0.013), and median cornea D2% 45.5 Gy (IQR 6.8) versus 39.9 Gy (IQR 10.0) (p<0.005) for IMRT versus VMAT plans, respectively. Constraints were met in 21/40 eyes, 7/40 corneae, and 24/40 lacrimal glands. Median delivery time was significantly longer for IMRT plans than for VMAT plans (p<0.01). Based on these results, VMAT plans were found to be superior in sparing doses to eyes, lacrimal glands, corneae. However, not all ocular OAR constraints could be met while ensuring adequate dose coverage and restricting brain toxicity risk for both planning techniques.


Author(s):  
Ernest Osei ◽  
Johnson Darko ◽  
Steph Swanson ◽  
Katrina Fleming ◽  
Ronald Snelgrove ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives: Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Canada and the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in both men and women in North America. Surgery is usually the primary treatment option for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, for patients who may not be suitable candidates for surgery, stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is an alternative method of treatment. SBRT has proven to be an effective technique for treating NSCLC patients by focally administering high radiation dose to the tumour with acceptable risk of toxicity to surrounding healthy tissues. The goal of this comprehensive retrospective dosimetric study is to compare the dosimetric parameters between three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT) and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) lung SBRT treatment plans for two prescription doses. Methods: We retrospectively analysed and compared lung SBRT treatment plans of 263 patients treated with either a 3DCRT non-coplanar or with 2–3 VMAT arcs technique at 48 Gy in 4 fractions (48 Gy/4) or 50 Gy in 5 fractions (50 Gy/5) prescribed to the planning target volume (PTV), typically encompassing the 80% isodose volume. All patients were treated on either a Varian 21EX or TrueBeam linear accelerator using 6-MV or 10-MV photon beams. Results: The mean PTV V95% and V100% for treatment plans at 48 Gy/4 are 99·4 ± 0·6% and 96·0 ± 1·0%, respectively, for 3DCRT and 99·7 ± 0·4% and 96·4 ± 3·4%, respectively, for VMAT. The corresponding mean PTV V95% and V100% at 50 Gy/5 are 99·0 ± 1·4% and 95·5 ± 2·5% for 3DCRT and 99·5 ± 0·8% and 96·1 ± 1·6% for VMAT. The CIRI and HI5/95 for the PTV at 48 Gy/4 are 1·1 ± 0·1 and 1·2 ± 0·0 for 3DCRT and 1·0 ± 0·1 and 1·2 ± 0·0 for VMAT. The corresponding CIRI and HI5/95 at 50 Gy/5 are 1·1 ± 0·1 and 1·3 ± 0·1 for 3DCRT and 1·0 ± 0·1 and 1·2 ± 0·0 for VMAT. The mean R50% and D2cm at 48 Gy/4 are 5·0 ± 0·8 and 61·2 ± 7·0% for 3DCRT and 4·9 ± 0·8 and 57·8 ± 7·9% for VMAT. The corresponding R50% and D2cm at 50 Gy/5 are 4·7 ± 0·5 and 65·5 ± 9·4% for 3DCRT and 4·7 ± 0·7 and 60·0 ± 7·2% for VMAT. Conclusion: The use of 3DCRT or VMAT technique for lung SBRT is an efficient and reliable method for achieving dose conformity, rapid dose fall-off and minimising doses to the organs at risk. The VMAT technique resulted in improved dose conformity, rapid dose fall-off from the PTV compared to 3DCRT, although the magnitude may not be clinically significant.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mayinger ◽  
Roman Ludwig ◽  
Sebastian M. Christ ◽  
Riccardo Dal Bello ◽  
Alex Ryu ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose To assess the effects of daily adaptive MR-guided replanning in stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) of liver metastases based on a patient individual longitudinal dosimetric analysis. Methods Fifteen patients assigned to SBRT for oligometastatic liver metastases underwent daily MR-guided target localization and on-table treatment plan re-optimization. Gross tumor volume (GTV) and organs at risk (OARs) were adapted to the anatomy-of-the-day. A reoptimized plan (RP) and a rigidly shifted baseline plan (sBP) without re-optimization were generated for each fraction. After extraction of DVH parameters for GTV, planning target volume (PTV), and OARs (stomach, duodenum, bowel, liver, heart) plans were compared on a per-patient basis. Results Median pre-treatment GTV and PTV were 14.9 cc (interquartile range (IQR): 7.7–32.9) and 62.7 cc (IQR: 42.4–105.5) respectively. SBRT with RP improved PTV coverage (V100%) for 47/75 of the fractions and reduced doses to the most proximal OARs (D1cc, Dmean) in 33/75 fractions compared to sBP. RP significantly improved PTV coverage (V100%) for metastases within close proximity to an OAR by 4.0% (≤ 0.2 cm distance from the edge of the PTV to the edge of the OAR; n = 7; p = 0.01), but only by 0.2% for metastases farther away from OAR (> 2 cm distance; n = 7; p = 0.37). No acute grade 3 treatment-related toxicities were observed. Conclusions MR-guided online replanning SBRT improved target coverage and OAR sparing for liver metastases with a distance from the edge of the PTV to the nearest luminal OAR < 2 cm. Only marginal improvements in target coverage were observed for target distant to critical OARs, indicating that these patients do not benefit from daily adaptive replanning.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-34
Author(s):  
Nursama Heru Apriantoro ◽  
Bambang Sutrisno Wibowo ◽  
Muhammad Irsal ◽  
Prima Chintya Delsi Kasih

This study aims to analyze the difference in results between TPS 3D-CRT radiotherapy irradiation technique and IMRT radiotherapy irradiation technique in nasopharyngeal cancer cases based on the doses received by the target volume and organs at risk and results of isodosis curve which include the value of the index conformity and homogeneity index value. Type of this research is quantitative experimental method. As for the population was taken in 10 patients consisting of 5 male and 5 female patients with nasopharyngeal cancer who received radiation therapy with 3D-CRT irradiation technique and IMRT radiation technique. Meaningfully, the results shows that are no difference in the dose received by the target volume, the dose received by organs at risk, and the curve isodose on these two techniques, including index values of conformity and homogeneity index. In conclusion, IMRT radiotherapy irradiation technique for nasopharyngeal cancer is more prioritized than 3DCRT radiotherapy irradiation technique, as the radiotherapy principle can be achieved by using IMRT radiotherapy irradiation technique.


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