Combining IMPT and spot‐scanning hadron arc to efficiently boost dose and LET in hypoxic target volumes

作者：Guangru Li, Lennart Volz, Olga Sokol, Emanuele Scifoni, Marco Durante, Guoqing Xiao, Qiang Li, Christian Graeff · 发表于：Medical Physics · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1002/mp.70176 · 被引用次数：2 · 研究领域：Radiation Therapy and Dosimetry、Advanced Radiotherapy Techniques、Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics

Abstract Background Hypoxia significantly affects radiotherapy by increasing tumor radioresistance. High linear energy transfer radiation, such as carbon ion therapy, can help mitigate this issue. Carbon ion arc therapy offers the potential to increase LET in hypoxic tumor regions, offering a promising approach to improve treatment outcomes, but lacks robustness. Purpose We introduced and quantitatively evaluated a new heavy ion therapy treatment strategy named LE T b O ost by heavy P article A rc R a D iation (LEOPARD), which combines intensity‐modulated particle therapy (IMPT) with spot‐scanning hadron arc (SHArc) strategy. LEOPARD aims to increase dose and the dose‐averaged linear energy transfer () within the hypoxic target volume (HTV) while maintaining plan quality and robustness. IMPT and SHArcBoost are used as reference strategies for comparison. Methods A proof of concept for LEOPARD was realized on 15 head & neck cancer patients with an artificially contoured HTV generated from isotropic shrinking of the clinical target volume (CTV). The LEOPARD plans integrate a full arc field (0 to 358, step = 2, 180 fields) delivering a boost dose to the HTV with additional IMPT fields(10 and 170) that simultaneously provide the prescribed dose to the CTV, combining both approaches in a unified treatment plan. To evaluate the potential of LEOPARD, we compared it to intensity modulated particle therapy dose boost plans (IMPTBoost) which included 2 IMPT fields (10 and 170) for ...