Dose-to-medium vs. dose-to-water: Dosimetric evaluation of dose reporting modes in Acuros XB for prostate, lung and breast cancer

Purpose: Acuros XB (AXB) dose calculation algorithm is available for external beam photon dose calculations in Eclipse treatment planning system (TPS). The AXB can report the absorbed dose in two modes: dose-to-water (Dw) and dose-to-medium (Dm). The main purpose of this study was to compare the dosimetric results of the AXB_Dm with that of AXB_Dw on real patient treatment plans. Methods: Four groups of patients (prostate cancer, stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) lung cancer, left breast cancer, and right breast cancer) were selected for this study, and each group consisted of 5 cases. The treatment plans of all cases were generated in the Eclipse TPS. For each case, treatment plans were computed using AXB_Dw and AXB_Dm for identical beam arrangements. Dosimetric evaluation was done by comparing various dosimetric parameters in the AXB_Dw plans with that of AXB_Dm plans for the corresponding patient case. Results: For the prostate cancer, the mean planning target volume (PTV) dose in the AXB_Dw plans was higher by up to 1.0%, but the mean PTV dose was within ±0.3% for the SBRT lung cancer. The analysis of organs at risk (OAR) results in the prostate cancer showed that AXB_Dw plans consistently produced higher values for the bladder and femoral heads but not for the rectum. In the case of SBRT lung cancer, a clear trend was seen for the heart mean dose and spinal cord maximum dose, with AXB_Dw plans producing higher values than the AXB_Dm plans. However, the difference in the lung doses between the AXB_Dm and AXB_Dw plans did not always produce a clear trend, with difference ranged from -1.4% to 2.9%. For both the left and right breast cancer, the AXB_Dm plans produced higher maximum dose to the PTV for all cases. The evaluation of the maximum dose to the skin showed higher values in the AXB_Dm plans for all 5 left breast cancer cases, whereas only 2 cases had higher maximum dose to the skin in the AXB_Dm plans for the right breast cancer. Conclusion: The preliminary dosimetric results from our clinical study showed that the selection of either Dm or Dw in AXB is less likely to produce significant dosimetric differences in the clinical environment. However, the difference between the AXB_Dm and AXB_Dw calculations depends on the disease site, and even for the same type of disease (e.g., lung cancer), the results are patient specific.