Dosimetric accuracy and clinical quality of Acuros XB and AAA dose calculation algorithm for stereotactic and conventional lung volumetric modulated arc therapy plans

INTRODUCTION: The main aim of the current study was to assess the dosimetric accuracy and clinical quality of volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans for stereotactic (stage I) and conventional (stage III) lung cancer treatments planned with Eclipse version 10.0 Anisotropic Analytical Algorithm (AAA) and Acuros XB (AXB) algorithm. METHODS: The dosimetric impact of using AAA instead of AXB, and grid size 2.5 mm instead of 1.0 mm for VMAT treatment plans was evaluated. The clinical plan quality of AXB VMAT was assessed using 45 stage I and 73 stage III patients, and was compared with published results, planned with VMAT and hybrid-VMAT techniques. RESULTS: The dosimetric impact on near-minimum PTV dose (D(98%)) using AAA instead of AXB was large (underdose up to 12.3%) for stage I and very small (underdose up to 0.8%) for stage III lung treatments. There were no significant differences for dose volume histogram (DVH) values between grid sizes. The calculation time was significantly higher for AXB grid size 1.0 than 2.5 mm (p < 0.01). The clinical quality of the VMAT plans was at least comparable with clinical qualities given in literature of lung treatment plans with VMAT and hybrid-VMAT techniques. The average mean lung dose (MLD), lung V(20Gy) and V(5Gy) in this study were respectively 3.6 Gy, 4.1% and 15.7% for 45 stage I patients and 12.4 Gy, 19.3% and 46.6% for 73 stage III lung patients. The average contra-lateral lung dose V(5Gy-cont) was 35.6% for stage III patients. CONCLUSIONS: For stereotactic and conventional lung treatments, VMAT calculated with AXB grid size 2.5 mm resulted in accurate dose calculations. No hybrid technique was needed to obtain the dose constraints. AXB is recommended instead of AAA for avoiding serious overestimation of the minimum target doses compared to the actual delivered dose.