TURKISH JOURNAL OF ONCOLOGY 2008 , Vol 23 , Num 4
A comparison between surgical scar and clips-guided treatment plans in breast electron boost
Murat OKUTAN1, Gönül KEMİKLER1, Aydın ÇAKIR1, Seden KÜÇÜCÜK2, Işık ASLAY2
1İstanbul Üniversitesi Onkoloji Enstitüsü, Tıbbi Radyofizik Bilim Dalı; İstanbul, Turkey
2İstanbul Üniversitesi İstanbul Tıp Fakültesi, Radyasyon Onkolojisi Anabilim Dalı, İstanbul, Turkey
OBJECTIVES
In general, breast electron boost treatment planning is made using surgical scars or clips placed in the tumor bed. The aim of this study was to compare these two treatments plans in terms of dose optimization.

METHODS
Twenty-five patients who had surgical clips placed in the tumor bed during tumor excision were evaluated. At first, surgical clips were not taken into account in these patients (type I). In the secondary stage, the treatment plan (type II) was performed considering surgical clips. Taking type II treatment plan as a basis, type I treatment plan was compared in terms of energy, field size, gantry angle, collimator angle and field center parameters.

RESULTS
When compared with Type I plan, changes were observed in the electron energy used in the treatment of 12 patients, the electron fields of 20 patients, the gantry angles of 12 patients, the collimator angles of 6 patients and the field centers of 18 patients when surgical clips were considered.

CONCLUSION
This study demonstrates that in breast boost irradiation, conformal planning made using CT slices was preferred to obtain optimum dose distribution at the target volume. Keywords : Boost; electron; clip; breast