Potential for improvement in radiation therapy

A successful strategy for improving the efficacy of radiation therapy has been to improve dose distribution, that is, reduce treatment volume toward target volume. This is so as the smaller treatment volume has permitted a higher dose to the target (hence a high tumor control probability) and a lesser volume of non-target tissues being irradiated (consequently a reduced frequency and severity of treatment related morbidity). There are in place several important means for further improvements in dose distributions. These include: (a) 3D graphic reconstruction of the affected part with definition of the position of the tumor vis-a-vis the adjacent normal structures; (b) explicit inclusion in the treatment plan of the uncertainty band around each isodose contour; (c) on-line contrast enhanced visual monitoring of the target tissue during the individual treatment session; (d) gating of treatment so as to reduce the impact of patient motion on the needed treatment volume; (e) use of computer control systems to execute the treatment; and (f) use of treatment methods which achieve a reduced treatment volume. In an examination for sites for which treatment volumes might be decreased by a substantial factor we have compared treatment volumes for radical surgical and radiation therapy. Results are presented for carcinomas of the cervix (Stage III), breast (Stage II), floor of mouth (Stage II). We describe a system developed here for on-line visual monitoring of the tissues covered by the treatment field. Brief descriptions are given of results of low LET charged particle radiation therapy and of intraoperative electron beam therapy. Also, the program developed here to use computer graphic techniques to display tumor and normal structures and isodose countours with uncertainty bands around each contour is mentioned.