Hyperfractionated intensity-modulated proton therapy for pharyngeal cancer with variable relative biological effectiveness: A simulation study.

Background: The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of proton is considered to be dependent on biological parameters and fractional dose. While hyperfractionated photon therapy was effective in the treatment of patients with head and neck cancers, its effect in intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) under the variable RBE has not been investigated in detail.

Purpose: To study the effect of variable RBE on hyperfractionated IMPT for the treatment of pharyngeal cancer. We investigated the biologically effective dose (BED) to determine the theoretical effective hyperfractionated schedule.

Methods: The treatment plans of three pharyngeal cancer patients were used to define the ΔBED for the clinical target volume (CTV) and soft tissue (acute and late reaction) as the difference between the BED for the altered schedule with variable RBE and conventional schedule with constant RBE. The ΔBED with several combinations of parameters (treatment days, number of fractions, and prescribed dose) was comprehensively calculated. Of the candidate schedules, the one that commonly gave a higher ΔBED for CTV was selected as the resultant schedule. The BED volume histogram was used to compare the influence of variable RBE and fractionation.

Results: In the conventional schedule, compared with the constant RBE, the variable RBE resulted in a mean 2.6 and 2.7 Gy reduction of BED for the CTV and soft tissue (acute reaction) of the three plans, respectively. Moreover, the BED for soft tissue (late reaction) increased by 7.4 Gy, indicating a potential risk of increased RBE. Comprehensive calculation of the ΔBED resulted in the hyperfractionated schedule of 80.52 Gy (RBE = 1.1)/66 fractions in 6.5 weeks. When variable RBE was used, compared with the conventional schedule, the hyperfractionated schedule increased the BED for CTV by 7.6 Gy; however, this was associated with a 7.8 Gy increase for soft tissue (acute reaction). The BED for soft tissue (late reaction) decreased by 2.4 Gy.

Conclusion: The results indicated a potential effect of the variable RBE on IMPT for pharyngeal cancer but with the possibility that hyperfractionation could outweigh this effect. Although biological uncertainties require conservative use of the resultant schedule, hyperfractionation is expected to be an effective strategy in IMPT for pharyngeal cancer.