To gate or not to gate - dosimetric evaluation comparing Gated vs. ITV-based methodologies in stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) treatment of lung cancer

Joshua Kim, Qixue Wu, Bo Zhao, Ning Wen, Munther Ajlouni, Benjamin Movsas, Indrin J. Chetty

To compare retrospectively generated gated plans to conventional internal target volume (ITV)-based plans and to evaluate whether gated radiotherapy provides clinically relevant dosimetric improvements to organs-at-risk (OARs). Evaluation was performed of 150 stereotactic ablative radiotherapy treatment plans delivered to 128 early-stage (T1-T3 (<5 cm)) NSCLC patients. To generate gated plans, original ITV-based plans were re-optimized and re-calculated on the end-exhale phase and using gated planning target volumes (PTV). Gated and ITV-based plans were produced for 3 × 18 Gy and 4 × 12 Gy fractionation regimens. Dose differences between gated and ITV-based plans were analyzed as a function of both three-dimensional motion and tumor volume. OARs were analyzed using RTOG and AAPM dose constraints. Differences between gated and ITV-based plans for all OAR indices were largest for the 3 × 18 Gy regimen. For this regimen, MLD differences calculated by subtracting the gated values from the ITV-based values (ITV vs. Gated) were 0.10 ± 0.56 Gy for peripheral island (N = 57), 0.16 ± 0.64 Gy for peripheral lung-wall seated (N = 57), and 0.10 ± 0.64 Gy for central tumors (N = 36). Variations in V20 were similarly low, with the greatest differences occurring in peripheral tumors (0.20 ± 1.17 %). Additionally, average differences (in 2Gy-equivalence) between ITV and gated lung indices fell well below clinical tolerance values for all fractionation regimens, with no clinically meaningful differences observed from the 4 × 12 Gy regimen and rarely for the 3 × 18 Gy regimen (<2 % of cases). Dosimetric differences between gated and ITV-based methods did generally increase with increasing tumor motion and decreasing tumor volume. Dose to ribs and bronchial tree were slightly higher in gated plans compared to ITV-based plans and slightly lower for esophagus, heart, spinal cord, and trachea. Analysis of 150 SABR-based lung cancer treatment plans did not show a substantial benefit for the gating regimen when compared to ITV-based treatment plans. Small benefits were observed only for the largest tumor motion (exceeding 2 cm) and the high dose treatment regimen (3 × 18 Gy), though these benefits did not appear to be clinically relevant.