Designed-seamless irradiation technique for extended whole mediastinal proton-beam irradiation for esophageal cancer

摘要

BackgroundProton-beam therapy (PBT) provides therapeutic advantages over conformal x-ray therapy in sparing organs at risk when treating esophageal cancer because of the fundamental physical dose distribution of the proton-beam. However, cases with extended esophageal lesions are difficult to treat with conventional PBT with a single isocentric field, as the length of the planning target volume (PTV) is longer than the available PBT field size in many facilities. In this study, the feasibility of a practical technique to effectively match PBT fields for esophageal cancer with a larger regional field beyond the available PBT field size was investigated.