Correlation between bone marrow dose volumes and acute hematological toxicity in postoperative gynecological cancer patients

OBJECTIVE: To identify the association between radiation dose volume and acute hematological toxicity (HT) in postoperative gynecological cancer patients receiving whole pelvic radiotherapy (RT) or intensity-modulated RT (IMRT), a principal component regression model was used to calculate HT. METHODS: Women (n=100) receiving with or without chemotherapy RT were retrospectively analyzed, 52 of whom received chemotherapy (paclitaxel and nedaplatin). The pelvis and lumbar vertebrae, defined as the prolong-pelvic bone marrow, were divided into the (1) combined ilium, ischium and pubis and the (2) lumbar vertebrae and the sacrum. The V5-V40 of subsides was calculated. The complete blood counts were recorded weekly. The principal component analysis was performed on volumes which generated the principal components (PCs), followed by using a logistic regression model. RESULTS: Forty-seven patients presented with grade 2-3 HT during RT. Chemotherapy increased the incidence of HT compared with RT alone (70.21% vs. 29.79%; p=0.001). Fifty-three patients with persistent HT developed more serious HT at an earlier stage of RT. The chemotherapy cycles and three PCs associated with grade 2-3 HT was identified to form the resulting principal logistic regression model. CONCLUSION: A new method to calculate the NTCP was achieved by PCs logistic regression.