Quantifying Interfraction and Intrafraction Tumor Motion in Lung Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy Using Respiration-Correlated Cone Beam Computed Tomography

Purpose

Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is an effective treatment for medically inoperable Stage I non–small-cell lung cancer. However, changes in the patient's breathing patterns during the course of SBRT may result in a geographic miss or an overexposure of healthy tissues to radiation. However, the precise extent of these changes in breathing pattern is not well known. We evaluated the inter- and intrafractional changes in tumor motion amplitude (ΔM) over an SBRT course.

Methods and Materials

Eighteen patients received image-guided SBRT delivered in three fractions; this therapy was done with abdominal compression in four patients. For each fraction, cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) was performed for tumor localization (± 3-mm tolerance) and then repeated to confirm geometric accuracy. Additional CBCT images were acquired at the midpoint and end of each SBRT fraction. Respiration-correlated CBCT (rcCBCT) reconstructions allowed retrospective assessment of inter- and intrafractional ΔM by a comparison of tumor displacements in all four-dimensional CT and rcCBCT scans. The ΔM was measured in mediolateral, superior-inferior, and anterior-posterior directions.

Results

A total of 201 rcCBCT images were analyzed. The mean time from localization of the tumor to the end-fraction CBCT was 35 ± 7 min. Compared with the motion recorded on four-dimensional CT, the mean ΔM was 0.4, 1.0, and 0.4 mm, respectively, in the mediolateral, superior-inferior, and anterior-posterior directions. On treatment, the observed ΔM was, on average, <1 mm; no ΔM was statistically different with respect to the initial rcCBCT. However, patients in whom abdominal compression was used showed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) in the variance of ΔM with respect to the initial rcCBCT in the superior-inferior direction.

Conclusions

The inter- and intrafractional ΔM that occur during a course of lung SBRT are small. However, abdominal compression causes larger variations in the time spent on the treatment couch and in the inter- and intrafractional ΔM values.