In silico trial of simulation-free hippocampal-avoidance whole brain adaptive radiotherapy

Background and purpose: Hippocampal-avoidance whole brain radiotherapy (HA-WBRT) can be a time-consuming process compared to conventional whole brain techniques, thus potentially limiting widespread utilization. Therefore, we evaluated the in silico clinical feasibility, via dose-volume metrics and timing, by leveraging a computed tomography (CT)-based commercial adaptive radiotherapy (ART) platform and workflow in order to create and deliver patient-specific, simulation-free HA-WBRT.

Materials and methods: Ten patients previously treated for central nervous system cancers with cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging were included in this study. The CBCT was the adaptive image-of-the-day to simulate first fraction on-board imaging. Initial contours defined on the MRI were rigidly matched to the CBCT. Online ART was used to create treatment plans at first fraction. Dose-volume metrics of these simulation-free plans were compared to standard-workflow HA-WBRT plans on each patient CT simulation dataset. Timing data for the adaptive planning sessions were recorded.

Results: For all ten patients, simulation-free HA-WBRT plans were successfully created utilizing the online ART workflow and met all constraints. The median hippocampi D_100% was 7.8 Gy (6.6-8.8 Gy) in the adaptive plan vs 8.1 Gy (7.7-8.4 Gy) in the standard workflow plan. All plans required adaptation at first fraction due to both a failing hippocampal constraint (6/10 adaptive fractions) and sub-optimal target coverage (6/10 adaptive fractions). Median time for the adaptive session was 45.2 min (34.0-53.8 min).

Conclusions: Simulation-free HA-WBRT, with commercially available systems, was clinically feasible via plan-quality metrics and timing, in silico.