Image-guidance technique comparison on respiratory reproducibility and dose indexes for stereotactic body radiotherapy in lung tumor

Abstract We investigated respiratory reproducibility from position errors of gold internal fiducial markers for breath-hold (BH) and real-time tumor tracking (RTT) techniques for stereotactic body radiotherapy in lung tumors. The relationship between position errors and dose indexes was checked for both techniques. The stereotactic body radiotherapy plan in lung tumors was planned for 29 patients. The tumor positioning was arranged using 1.5 mm diameter gold internal fiducial markers. First, CT images were acquired to analyze position errors of gold markers for BH and RTT techniques. The offset plans for both techniques were calculated by displacing the mean position errors. The dose indexes (D98, D95, D2, mean dose) in a planning target volume were evaluated from dose volume histograms for the original plan, BH, and RTT offset plans. The relationship between position errors and dose indexes was analyzed using the root mean square (RMS) for both techniques. For the BH, the RMS was 3.29 mm at the lower lobe. Similarly, it was 1.34 mm for the RTT. The difference for D98 by position error for BH was −7.0 ± 10.8% at the lower lobe and the difference of all dose indexes for the RTT was less than 1%. The D2 and mean dose for both techniques were nearly the same as those of the original plan. In conclusion, the adaptation of the BH technique should be ≤2 mm RMS. If the position error is >2 mm RMS, the RTT technique should be used instead of the BH technique.