Robustness of VMAT to setup errors in postmastectomy radiotherapy of left-sided breast cancer: Impact of bolus thickness

Background Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) with varied bolus thicknesses has been employed in postmastectomy radiotherapy (PMRT) of breast cancer to improve superficial target coverage. However, impact of bolus thickness on plan robustness remains unclear. Methods The study enrolled ten patients with left-sided breast cancer who received radiotherapy using VMAT with 5 mm and 10 mm bolus (VMAT-5B and VMAT-10B). Inter-fractional setup errors were simulated by introducing a 3 mm shift to isocenter of the original plans in the anterior-posterior, left-right, and inferior-superior directions. The plans (perturbed plans) were recalculated without changing other parameters. Dose volume histograms (DVH) were collected for plan evaluation. Absolute dose differences in DVH endpoints for the clinical target volume (CTV), heart, and left lung between the perturbed plans and the original ones were used for robustness analysis. Results VMAT-10B showed better target coverage, while VMAT-5B was superior in organs-at-risk (OARs) sparing. As expected, small setup errors of 3 mm could induce dose fluctuations in CTV and OARs. The differences in CTV were small in VMAT-5B, with a maximum difference of -1.05 Gy for the posterior shifts. For VMAT-10B, isocenter shifts in the posterior and right directions significantly decreased CTV coverage. The differences were -1.69 Gy, -1.48 Gy and -1.99 Gy, -1.69 Gy for Delta D-95% and Delta D-98%, respectively. Regarding the OARs, only isocenter shifts in the posterior, right, and inferior directions increased dose to the left lung and the heart. Differences in VMAT-10B were milder than those in VMAT-5B. Specifically, mean heart dose were increased by 0.42 Gy (range 0.10 similar to 0.95 Gy) and 0.20 Gy (range -0.11 similar to 0.72 Gy), and mean dose for the left lung were increased by 1.02 Gy (range 0.79 similar to 1.18 Gy) and 0.68 Gy (range 0.47 similar to 0.84 Gy) in VMAT-5B and VMAT-10B, respectively. High-dose volumes in the organs were increased by approximate 0 similar to 2 and 1 similar to 3 percentage points, respectively. Nevertheless, most of the dosimetric parameters in the perturbed plans were still clinically acceptable. Conclusions VMAT-5B appears to be more robust to 3 mm setup errors than VMAT-10B. VMAT-5B also resulted in better OARs sparing with acceptable target coverage and dose homogeneity. Therefore 5 mm bolus is recommended for PMRT of left-sided breast cancer using VMAT.

Automated summary

This study found that in postmastectomy radiotherapy for breast cancer, using a 5 mm bolus in volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) provides better target coverage and organ-at-risk sparing compared to a 10 mm bolus.