Effect of accurate heart delineation on cardiac dose during the CONVERT trial

Objective:This study investigated the effect of deviation from protocol in heart delineation for the Concurrent Once-daily Versus twice-daily Radiotherapy (CONVERT) Trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT00433563) quality assurance (QA) programme and the effect of that on mean cardiac dose and percentage of heart volume receiving ≥5 Gy (V5%) and percentage of heart volume receiving ≥30 Gy (V30%).Methods:Patients with limited-stage small-cell lung cancer in the CONVERT trial were randomized to receive 45 Gy in 30# twice daily or 66 Gy in 33# once daily radiotherapy, with concurrent chemotherapy in both arms. Of the 100 trial patient cases reviewed by the QA team [for patient selection, disease/organs at risk (OARs) outlining and treatment planning], 50 patient cases were selected, and the heart was reoutlined according to the “gold standard” trial protocol. Dose–volume histogram (DVH) data were extracted. The impact of change in heart volume on cardiac DVH is presented.Results:For gold standard cardiac ou...