Volumetric and dosimetric comparison in adaptive radiotherapy for patients with head and neck cancer:a systematic review and Meta-analysis / 中华放射肿瘤学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To perform a systematic review and Meta-analysis on volumetric and dosimetric changes in target volumes and organs at risk (OARs) in adaptive radiotherapy (ART) for patients with head and neck cancer (HNC),and to investigate the role of ART in the treatment of HNC.Methods Literature retrieval was performed to include related studies,and the parameters of primary tumor,GTV-T and GTV-N,parotid volume,D95 and Dmean of target volumes,Dmean of ipsilateral and contralateral parotid volume (I-PG and C-PG),and Dmax of the spinal cord and brainstem.Results A total of 17 studies involving 336 patients were included in the meta-analysis.Primary tumor and parotid volume changed significantly.The volumes of GTV-T,GTV-N,and I-PG were significantly reduced during the 15-20th radiotherapy and after the 20th radiotherapy (P＜0.05),and the C-PG was significantly reduced after the 20th radiotherapy (P=0.004).The analysis of actual dose showed that the D95 and Dmean of primary tumor showed no significant differences,and during the 15-20th radiotherapy,the Dmax of the spinal cord was increased by 2.26 Gy (P=0.000),while the Dmax of the brainstem showed no significant changes before the 20th radiotherapy and was increased by 1.78 Gy after the 25th radiotherapy (P=0.020).In addition,the Dmean of I-PG was increased by 2 Gy during the 20-25th radiotherapy (P =0.0001),and the D of C-PG was increased before the 20th radiotherapy and showed no significant changes after the 25thradiotherapy (P=0.110).The dosimetric analysis of ART showed that the Dmax of the spinal cord and brainstem was reduced significantly (spinal cordMD =-2.15,95％ CI-3.12 to-1.18,P=0.000;brainstemMD =-2.20,95％ CI-3.32 to-1.09,P=0.000).The Dmean of I-PG was reduced by about 3.5 Gy,and the sensitivity analysis revealed that the results of Dmean of C-PG were unstable.Conclusions The volumes of primary tumors and parotid glands change significantly,and the actual doses of OARs (Dmax of the spinal cord and brainstem and Dmean of the parotid glands) significantly increase,while the doses of GTV-T and GTV-N show no significant changes.ART can effectively protect the OARs,and patients with locally advanced HNC who receive concurrent chemoradiotherapy can obtain good dose gains from ART plan performed during the 15-20th radiotherapy and at about the 25th radiotherapy.