Evaluation of the Position Error of Wearing Surgical Masks During Radiotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer Patients

Shan-Ho Chan; Ya-Yu Huang; Shu-Huei Tsai; Jui-Chu Wang; Yi-Ren Chen; Chen-Lin Kang

doi:10.2147/CMAR.S384110

Evaluation of the Position Error of Wearing Surgical Masks During Radiotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer Patients

Cancer Manag Res. 2022 Nov 5:14:3131-3137. doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S384110. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Shan-Ho Chan¹, Ya-Yu Huang², Shu-Huei Tsai², Jui-Chu Wang³, Yi-Ren Chen², Chen-Lin Kang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Imaging and Radiology, Shu-Zen Junior College of Medicine and Management, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
² Department of Radiation Oncology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
³ Department of Anatomical Pathology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Abstract

Purpose: Wearing a mask during the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic (COVID-19) is a preventive way to reduce droplet and aerosol transmission. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the position error of wearing a surgical mask during radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients.

Patients and methods: We collected and analyzed 2351 kV X-ray image records of 81 patients with head and neck cancer who underwent image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). Patients with/without a surgical mask were divided into the head-neck (HN) mask group and head-neck-shoulder (HNS) mask group. The position error in the X (left-right), Y (superior-inferior), Z (anterior-posterior), 3D (three dimensional) vectors, as well as the pitch and yaw axes were compared between the four groups.

Results: We found that patients wearing surgical masks in the HN mask group showed no significant differences in the mean position error of the different types of headrest (p>0.05). In the HNS mask group, only the type C headrest group showed significant differences (P < 0.05). The X axis values were -0.05±0.07 and -0.11± 0.01 cm (P = 0.04), and the pitch axis values were 0.34±0.29° and 0.83±0.08° (P = 0.01).

Conclusion: The mean position error of most patients wearing surgical masks was not greater than patients without a surgical mask. Patients wearing while receiving treatment is a low-cost and easy-to-implement prevention method.

Keywords: COVID-19; head and neck cancer; image-guided radiotherapy; setup error.