Four-dimensional IMRT treatment planning using a DMLC motion-tracking algorithm

The purpose of this study is to develop a four-dimensional (4D) intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment-planning method by modifying and applying a dynamic multileaf collimator (DMLC) motion-tracking algorithm. The 4D radiotherapy treatment scenario investigated is to obtain a 4D treatment plan based on a 4D computed tomography (CT) planning scan and to have the delivery flexible enough to account for changes in tumor position during treatment delivery. For each of 4D CT planning scans from 12 lung cancer patients, a reference phase plan was created; with its MLC leaf positions and three-dimensional (3D) tumor motion, the DMLC motion-tracking algorithm generated MLC leaf sequences for the plans of other respiratory phases. Then, a deformable dose-summed 4D plan was created by merging the leaf sequences of individual phase plans. Individual phase plans, as well as the deformable dose-summed 4D plan, are similar for each patient, indicating that this method is dosimetrically robust to the variations of fractional time spent in respiratory phases on a given 4D CT planning scan. The 4D IMRT treatment-planning method utilizing the DMLC motion-tracking algorithm explicitly accounts for 3D tumor motion and thus hysteresis and nonlinear motion, and is deliverable on a linear accelerator.