Inter- and intra-fractional bladder motion during radiotherapy for bladder cancer: A comparison of full and empty bladders

Abstract Purpose To compare inter- and intra-fraction bladder volume variations and bladder wall motion during radiotherapy (RT) for bladder cancer with full and empty bladder protocols. Materials and methods Bladder volumes, filling rates and bladder wall movement were retrospectively analyzed for 24 patients with at least 4 sets of delineable pre and post treatment cone beam CT (CBCT)-scans. Eight patients were treated with an ‘empty bladder’ (EB) protocol and sixteen patients with a ‘full bladder’ (FB) protocol. Results 24 planning CT-scans and 356 CBCT-scans (178 sets) were analyzed. The average time between pre and post irradiation CBCT was 8 min (range 6–18 min). Median filling rate was 1.94 ml/min and did not differ between EB and FB. Random variation in bladder volume and inter-fraction wall movement was slightly but not significantly larger for FB, whereas intra-fraction bladder wall movement was slightly but not significantly smaller for FB. The largest inter- and intra-fraction bladder wall movement was found in the cranial anterior direction. Conclusion Empty and full bladder protocols show similar inter- and intra-fraction wall motion, and therefore treatment choices could be purely based on organ at risk criteria.