Total marrow irradiation for hematopoietic malignancies using volumetric modulated arc therapy: A review of treatment planning studies

• Published in: Physics and imaging in radiation oncology 2019-07, Vol.11, p.47-53
• Main Authors: Mancosu, Pietro, Cozzi, Luca, Muren, Ludvig Paul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Plan optimization; Radiotherapy; Review; Total Marrow Irradiation (TMI); Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT)
• ISSN: 2405-6316; 2405-6316
• DOI: 10.1016/j.phro.2019.08.001

Total Marrow Irradiation (TMI) has been introduced in the management of hematopoietic malignancies with the aim of reducing toxicities induced by total body irradiation. TMI is one of the most challenging planning and delivery techniques of radiotherapy, as the whole skeleton should be irradiated, while sparing nearby organs at risk (OARs). Target volumes of 7–10 k cm3 and healthy tissue volumes of 50–90 k cm3 should be considered and inverse treatment planning is needed. This review focused on aspects of TMI delivery using volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). In particular, multiple arcs from isocenters with different positions are required for VMAT-TMI as the cranial-caudal lengths of patients are much larger than the jaw aperture. Therefore, many field junctions between arcs with different isocenters should be managed. This review covered, in particular, feasibility studies for managing multiple isocenters, optimization of plan parameters, plan optimization of the lower extremities, robustness of field junctions and dosimetric plan verification of VMAT-TMI. This review demonstrated the possibility of VMAT in delivering TMI with multi-arcs and multi-isocenters. Care should be paid in the patient repositioning, with particular attention to the cranial-caudal direction.