Proton versus Photon Breath-Hold Radiation for Left-Sided Breast Cancer after Breast-Conserving Surgery: A Dosimetric Comparison.

Purpose: Radiation to breast, chest wall, and/or regional nodes is an integral component of breast cancer management in many situations. Irradiating left-sided breast and/or regional nodes may be technically challenging because of cardiac tolerance and subsequent risk of long-term cardiac complications. Deep inspiratory breath-hold (DIBH) technique physically separates cardiac structures away from radiation target volume, thus reducing cardiac dose with either photon (Ph) or proton beam therapy (PBT).

Insurance Approval for Proton Beam Therapy and its Impact on Delays in Treatment.

Purpose: Prior authorization (PA) has been widely implemented for proton beam therapy (PBT). We sought to determine the association between PA determination and patient characteristics, practice guidelines, and potential treatment delays.

Methods And Materials: A single-institution retrospective analysis was performed of all patients considered for PBT between 2015 and 2018 at a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Improvement in dose homogeneity with electronic tissue compensation over IMRT and conventional RT in whole brain radiotherapy.

Background And Purpose: To perform a dosimetric analysis of whole brain radiotherapy using electronic tissue compensation (ECOMP) with dynamic multileaf collimation (dMLC) and its comparisons with inverse-planned intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) with optimization constraints and conventional whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT).

Materials And Methods: Ten patients (6 adult, 4 pediatric) who were treated at our institution were selected for this study. WBRT fields were defined using opposed lateral fields directed at the intracranial contents and MLC leaves were used to block the critical normal structures.