A study to quantify the effectiveness of daily endorectal balloon for prostate intrafraction motion management.

PURPOSE: To quantify intrafraction prostate motion between patient groups treated with and without daily endorectal balloon (ERB) employed during prostate radiotherapy and establish the effectiveness of the ERB. METHODS: Real-time intrafraction prostate motion from 29 non-ERB (1,061 sessions) and 30 ERB (1,008 sessions) patients was evaluated based on three-dimensional (3D), left, right, cranial, caudal, anterior, and posterior displacements. The average percentage of time with 3D and unidirectional prostate displacements >2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 mm in 1-min intervals was calculated for up to 6 min of treatment time. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov method was used to evaluate the intrafraction prostate motion pattern between both groups. RESULTS: Large 3D motion (up to 1 cm or more) was only observed in the non-ERB group. The motion increased as a function of elapsed time for displacements >2-8 mm for the non-ERB group and >2-4 mm for the ERB group (p < 0.05). The percentage time distributions between the two groups were significantly different for motion >5 mm (p < 0.05). The 3D symmetrical internal margin (IM) can be reduced from 5 to 3 mm (40% reduction), whereas the asymmetrical IM can be reduced from 3 to 2 mm (33% reduction) in cranial, caudal, anterior, and posterior for 6 min of treatment, when ERB is used. Beyond 6 min, the symmetrical 3D and asymmetrical cranial, caudal, anterior, and posterior IMs can be reduced from 9, 4, 7, 7, and 8 to 5, 2, 5, 3, and 4 mm, respectively (up to 57% reduction). CONCLUSION: The percentage of time that the prostate was displaced in any direction was less in the ERB group for almost all magnitudes of motion considered. The directional analysis shows that the ERB reduced IMs in almost all directions, especially the anterior-posterior direction.

Real-time study of prostate intrafraction motion during external beam radiotherapy with daily endorectal balloon.

PURPOSE: To prospectively investigate intrafraction prostate motion during radiofrequency-guided prostate radiotherapy with implanted electromagnetic transponders when daily endorectal balloon (ERB) is used. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Intrafraction prostate motion from 24 patients in 787 treatment sessions was evaluated based on three-dimensional (3D), lateral, cranial-caudal (CC), and anterior-posterior (AP) displacements. The mean percentage of time with 3D, lateral, CC, and AP prostate displacements>2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 mm in 1 minute intervals was calculated for up to 6 minutes of treatment time. Correlation between the mean percentage time with 3D prostate displacement>3 mm vs. treatment week was investigated. RESULTS: The percentage of time with 3D prostate movement>2, 3, and 4 mm increased with elapsed treatment time (p<0.05). Prostate movement>5 mm was independent of elapsed treatment time (p=0.11). The overall mean time with prostate excursions>3 mm was 5%. Directional analysis showed negligible lateral prostate motion; AP and CC motion were comparable. The fraction of time with 3D prostate movement>3 mm did not depend on treatment week of (p>0.05) over a 4-minute mean treatment time. CONCLUSIONS: Daily endorectal balloon consistently stabilizes the prostate, preventing clinically significant displacement (>5 mm). A 3-mm internal margin may sufficiently account for 95% of intrafraction prostate movement for up to 6 minutes of treatment time. Directional analysis suggests that the lateral internal margin could be further reduced to 2 mm.