Image-Guided Radiation Therapy for Muscle-Invasive Carcinoma of the Urinary Bladder with Cone Beam CT Scan: Use of Individualized Internal Target Volumes for a Single Patient

INTRODUCTION: While planning radiation therapy (RT) for a carcinoma of the urinary bladder (CaUB), the intra-fractional variation of the urinary bladder (UB) volume due to filling-up needs to be accounted for. This internal target volume (ITV) is obtained by adding internal margins (IM) to the contoured bladder. This study was planned to propose a method of acquiring individualized ITVs for each patient and to verify their reproducibility. METHODS: One patient with CaUB underwent simulation with the proposed ‘bladder protocol’. After immobilization, a planning CT scan on empty bladder was done. He was then given 300 ml of water to drink and the time (T) was noted. Planning CT scans were performed after 20 min (T+20), 30 min (T+30) and 40 min (T+40). The CT scan at T+20 was co-registered with the T+30 and T+40 scans. The bladder volumes at 20, 30 and 40 min were then contoured as CTV20, CTV30 and CTV40 to obtain an individualized ITV for our patient. For daily treatment, he was instructed to drink water as above, and the time was noted; treatment was started after 20 min. Daily pre- and post-treatment cone beam CT (CBCT) scans were done. The bladder visualized on the pre-treatment CBCT scan was compared with CTV20 and on the post-treatment CBCT scan with CTV30. RESULTS: In total, there were 65 CBCT scans (36 pre- and 29 post-treatment). Individualized ITVs were found to be reproducible in 93.85% of all instances and fell outside in 4 instances. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed bladder protocol can yield a reproducible estimation of the ITV during treatment; this can obviate the need for taking standard IMs.