Conventional radiotherapy of localized right side breast cancer after radical mastectomy: development of innovative “field in field” technique

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this paper is to study the distribution of the therapy dosage applied by a modified conventional “field in field” technique and compare it to the distribution of the dosage applied by the standard conventional technique.
Methods: The study included ten patients with right side breast cancer, after they were exposed to radical mastectomy and chemotherapy. Radiotherapy dosage of TD 50 Gy in 25 fractions was applied to the anterolateral side of the right thoracic wall, with two opposite conventional tangential fields by the linear accelerator Elekta Synergy and the energy of 6 megavolts (MV). A delineation of the target volume (CTV – Clinical Target Volume) was done within conventional fields. At the XiO system for planning we included additional fields within the existing conventional fields, which was the so called “field in field” technique. On the basis of CTV the Dose Volume  Histogram (DVH) was calculated for conventional and “field in field” plans. VD90%, VD95%, VD107%, VD115%, CI and HI were calculated for both techniques. Means were pared with the paired Student's t-test. The results were considered significantly different if p<0.05.
Results: VD90% and VD 95% were significantly higher for the “field in field” technique. Therefore, CI also favored the “field in field” technique (p=0.02). There was no difference in VD107% and VD115% between the compared groups. Consequently, there was no statistically significant difference in HI (1.13±0.03 vs.1.13±0.03, p=0.06).
Conclusion: Conventional postoperative radiotherapy of localized right side breast cancer by “field in field” technique provides excellent coverage of the target volume by radiotherapy isodose.