Light and shadows of a new technique: is photon total-skin irradiation using helical IMRT feasible, less complex and as toxic as the electrons one?

Michela Buglione; Luigi Spiazzi; Mauro Urpis; Liliana Baushi; Rossella Avitabile; Nadia Pasinetti; Paolo Borghetti; Luca Triggiani; Sara Pedretti; Federica Saiani; Alfredo Fiume; Diana Greco; Stefano Ciccarelli; Alessia Polonini; Renzo Moretti; Stefano Maria Magrini

doi:10.1186/s13014-018-1100-4

Light and shadows of a new technique: is photon total-skin irradiation using helical IMRT feasible, less complex and as toxic as the electrons one?

Radiat Oncol. 2018 Aug 29;13(1):158. doi: 10.1186/s13014-018-1100-4.

Authors

Michela Buglione¹, Luigi Spiazzi², Mauro Urpis³, Liliana Baushi³, Rossella Avitabile², Nadia Pasinetti³, Paolo Borghetti³, Luca Triggiani³, Sara Pedretti³, Federica Saiani², Alfredo Fiume², Diana Greco³, Stefano Ciccarelli³, Alessia Polonini², Renzo Moretti², Stefano Maria Magrini³

Affiliations

¹ Radiation Oncology Department, University and Spedali Civili Hospital - Brescia, P.le Spedali Civili 1 -, 25123, Brescia, Italy. michela.buglione@unibs.it.
² Medical Physics, Spedali Civili Hospital - Brescia, P.le Spedali Civili 1 -, 25123, Brescia, Italy.
³ Radiation Oncology Department, University and Spedali Civili Hospital - Brescia, P.le Spedali Civili 1 -, 25123, Brescia, Italy.

Abstract

Background: Radiotherapy is one of the standard treatments for cutaneous lymphoma and Total Skin Electrons Beam Irradiation (TSEBI) is generally used to treat diffuse cutaneous lymphoma and some cases of localized disease. Helical IMRT (HI) allows to treat complex target with optimal dose distribution and organ at risk sparing, so helical tomotherapy has been proposed as alternative technique to TSEBI but only one preliminary report has been published.

Methods: Three patients treated (from May 2013 to December 2014) with Helical IMRT, with a total dose between 24 and 30 Gy, were retrospectively evaluated. Data about dosimetric features, response and acute toxicity were registered and analyzed. Planned target coverage was compared with daily in vivo measures and dose calculation based on volumetric images used for set up evaluation as well.

Results: The patients had a mean measured surface fraction dose ranging from 1.54 Gy up to 2.0 Gy. A planned target dose ranging from 85 to 120% of prescription doses was obtained. All doses to Organs At Risk were within the required constraints. Particular attention was posed on "whole bone marrow" planned V_10Gy, V_12Gy and V_20Gy values, ranging respectively between 23 and 43%, 20.1 and 38% and 9.8 and 24%. A comparison with the theoretical homologous values obtained with TSEBI has shown much lower values with TSEBI. Even if treatment was given in sequence to the skin of the upper and lower hemi-body, all the patients had anaemia, requiring blood transfusions, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia.

Conclusion: Based on our limited results TSEBI should still be considered the standard method to treat total skin because of its pattern of acute and late toxicities and the dose distribution. In this particular case the better target coverage obtained with HI can be paid in terms of worse toxicity. Helical IMRT can instead be considered optimal in treating large, convex, cutaneous areas where it is difficult to use multiple electrons fields in relation with the clinical results and the limited and reversible toxicities.

Keywords: Bone marrow; Photons; Primary cutaneous lymphoma (PCL); Radiotherapy; Total skin electrons beam irradiation - TSEBI; Total skin irradiation; Toxicity.

MeSH terms

Electrons
Feasibility Studies
Female
Humans
Lymphoma, T-Cell, Cutaneous / radiotherapy*
Male
Mycosis Fungoides / radiotherapy
Organs at Risk / radiation effects
Photons / therapeutic use*
Radiotherapy Dosage
Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted
Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated / methods*
Reproducibility of Results
Retrospective Studies
Skin Neoplasms / radiotherapy*
Whole-Body Irradiation / methods*