Dosimetric differences in flattened and flattening filter-free beam treatment plans

Yue Yan, Poonam Yadav, Michael Bassetti, Kaifang Du, Daniel Saenz, Paul Harari, Bhudatt Paliwal

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study investigated the dosimetric differences in treatment plans from flattened and flattening filter-free (FFF) beams from the TrueBeam System. A total of 104 treatment plans with static (sliding window) intensity-modulated radiotherapy beams and volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) beams were generated for 15 patients involving three cancer sites. In general, the FFF beam provides similar target coverage as the flattened beam with improved dose sparing to organ-at-risk (OAR). Among all three cancer sites, the head and neck showed more important differences between the flattened beam and FFF beam. The maximum reduction of the FFF beam in the mean dose reached up to 2.82 Gy for larynx in head and neck case. Compared to the 6 MV flattened beam, the 10 MV FFF beam provided improved dose sparing to certain OARs, especially for VMAT cases. Thus, 10 MV FFF beam could be used to improve the treatment plan.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)92-99
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Medical Physics
Volume41
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2016
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Flattening filter-free beam
  • intensity-modulated radiotherapy
  • treatment plan

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biophysics
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

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