[Verification of the protective effect of a testicular shield in postoperative radiotherapy for seminoma].

In postoperative radiotherapy for seminoma, control of the testicular absorbed dose is important, since exposure of the testis can lead to temporary or permanent infertility. In this case, instead of using a dog-leg-shaped field, treatment using a field focused near the aorta was provided in several disease stages of seminoma. However, the precise need for testicular shielding during treatment and dose of testis exposure was not clear. We examined these questions by measuring the testicular absorbed dose with and without a testicular shield using two clinical treatment plans and a phantom. The distance from the testis phantom and the lower end of the irradiation field was varied. Where the total dose for the tumor was 20 Gy, the testicular absorbed dose was below 0.1 Gy, the threshold dose for temporary infertility. At this dosage, the distance between the testis phantom and the edge of the irradiation field was 14.6 cm without the shield and 9.99 cm with the shield. Using a testes shield, it was thus possible to reduce the dose by 58.5%.

[Influence on dose calculation by difference of dose calculation algorithms in stereotactic lung irradiation: comparison of pencil beam convolution (inhomogeneity correction: batho power law) and analytical anisotropic algorithm].

The monitor unit (MU) was calculated by pencil beam convolution (inhomogeneity correction algorithm: batho power law) [PBC (BPL)] which is the dose calculation algorithm based on measurement in the past in the stereotactic lung irradiation study. The recalculation was done by analytical anisotropic algorithm (AAA), which is the dose calculation algorithm based on theory data. The MU calculated by PBC (BPL) and AAA was compared for each field. In the result of the comparison of 1031 fields in 136 cases, the MU calculated by PBC (BPL) was about 2% smaller than that calculated by AAA. This depends on whether one does the calculation concerning the extension of the second electrons. In particular, the difference in the MU is influenced by the X-ray energy. With the same X-ray energy, when the irradiation field size is small, the lung pass length is long, the lung pass length percentage is large, and the CT value of the lung is low, and the difference of MU is increased.

[Comparison of dose evaluation index by pencil beam convolution and anisotropic analytical algorithm in stereotactic radiotherapy for lung cancer].

We previously studied dose distributions of stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) for lung cancer. Our aim is to compare in combination pencil beam convolution with the inhomogeneity correction algorithm of Batho power low [PBC (BPL)] to the anisotropic analytical algorithm (AAA) by using the dose evaluation indexes. There were significant differences in D95, PTV mean dose, homogeneity index, and conformity index, V10, and V5. The dose distributions inside the PTV calculated by PBC (BPL) were more uniform than those of AAA. There were no significant differences in V20 and mean dose of total lung. There was no large difference for the whole lung. However, the surrounding high-dose region of PTV became smaller in AAA. The difference in dose evaluation indexes extended between PBC (BPL) and AAA that as many as low CT value of lung. When the dose calculation algorithm is changed, it is necessary to consider difference dose distributions compared with those of established practice.