Is there a clinical benefit with a smooth compensator design compared with a plunged compensator design for passive scattered protons?

In proton therapy, passive scattered proton plans use compensators to conform the dose to the distal surface of the planning volume. These devices are custom made from acrylic or wax for each treatment field using either a plunge-drilled or smooth-milled compensator design. The purpose of this study was to investigate if there is a clinical benefit of generating passive scattered proton radiation treatment plans with the smooth compensator design.

Evaluating proton stereotactic body radiotherapy to reduce chest wall dose in the treatment of lung cancer.

Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) can produce excellent local control of several types of solid tumor; however, toxicity to nearby critical structures is a concern. We found previously that in SBRT for lung cancer, the chest wall (CW) volume receiving 20, 30, or 40Gy (V20, V30, or V40) was linked with the development of neuropathy. Here we sought to determine whether the dosimetric advantages of protons could produce lower CW doses than traditional photon-based SBRT.