Effects of lung tissue characterization in radiotherapy of breast cancer under deep inspiration breath hold when using Monte Carlo dosimetry

PurposeTo investigate the sensitivity of Monte Carlo (MC) calculated lung dose distributions to lung tissue characterization in external beam radiotherapy of breast cancer under Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH).MethodsEGSnrc based MC software was employed. Mean lung densities for one hundred patients were analysed. CT number frequency and clinical dose distributions were calculated for 15 patients with mean lung density below 0.14 g/cm³. Lung volume with a pre-defined CT numbers was also considered. Lung tissue was characterized by applying different CT calibrations in the low-density region and air-lung tissue thresholds. Dose impact was estimated by Dose Volume Histogram (DVH) parameters.ResultsMean lung densities below 0.14 g/cm³ were found in 10% of the patients. CT numbers below ?960 HU dominated the CT frequency distributions with a high rate of CT numbers at ?990 HU. Mass density conversion approach influenced the DVH shape. V_4Gy and V_8Gy varied by 7% and 5% for the selected patients and by 9% and 3.5% for the pre-defined lung volume. V_16Gy and V_20Gy, were within 2.5%. Regions above 20 Gy were affected. Variations in air- lung tissue differentiation resulted in DVH parameters within 1%. Threshold at ?990 HU was confirmed by the CT number frequency distributions.ConclusionsLung dose distributions were more sensitive to variations in the CT calibration curve below lung (inhale) density than to air-lung tissue differentiation. Low dose regions were mostly affected. The dosimetry effects were found to be potentially important to 10% of the patients treated under DIBH.