Comparison of Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy and Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy for Whole Brain Hippocampal Sparing Treatment Plans Based on Radiobiological Modeling

INTRODUCTION: In this article, we report the results of our investigation on comparison of radiobiological aspects of treatment plans with linear accelerator-based intensity-modulated radiation therapy and volumetric-modulated arc therapy for patients having hippocampal avoidance whole-brain radiation therapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this retrospective study using the dose-volume histogram, we calculated and compared biophysical indices of equivalent uniform dose, tumor control probability, and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) for 15 whole-brain radiotherapy patients. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS: Dose-response models for tumors and critical structures were separated into two groups: mechanistic and empirical. Mechanistic models formulate mathematically with describable relationships while empirical models fit data through empirical observations to appropriately determine parameters giving results agreeable to those given by mechanistic models. CONCLUSIONS: Techniques applied in this manuscript could be applied to any other organs or types of cancer to evaluate treatment plans based on radiobiological modeling.