Effect of collimator and couch angle change on breast IMRT dose distributions

Jie Yang, Charlie Ma, Lu Wang, Lili Chen, Jinsheng Li

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Intensity-modulated tangential photon beams for breast cancer treatment can improve the dose uniformity significantly throughout the whole breast and reduce the dose to the lung and the heart when compared to the conventional technique. Before the first treatment, patient setup may require a change on the collimator angle and/or the couch angle based on the chest wall coverage according to the port films. The objective of this work is to investigate the effects of the collimator and the couch angle change on the dose distribution for breast cancer treatment using intensity-modulated tangential photon beams, and to determine the clinical acceptable range of the angle change for routine treatment. Ten breast cases treated with intensity-modulated tangential photon beams were analyzed in this study. Patient- specific CT data and the radiation therapy planning (RTP) files obtained from our in-house Monte Carlo based breast IMRT treatment planning system were used for IMRT dose recalculation with collimator or couch angle changes. The isodose distributions and DVHs were compared with the original plans, and the effects of the collimator and couch angle change to breast IMRT dose distributions were evaluated. Our results show that a 4° change in the collimator angle or the couch angle did not affect the dose distribution significantly and it is acceptable in the clinic for patient treatment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)55-63
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics
Volume10
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

Keywords

  • Breast Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging
  • Female
  • Heart/radiation effects
  • Humans
  • Immobilization
  • Lung/radiation effects
  • Radiography
  • Radiotherapy Dosage
  • Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted/methods
  • Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated/methods

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