Dosimetric Analysis of the Brachial Plexus using Monte Carlo-based Intensity-modulated Radiotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer

摘要

Radiation-induced brachial plexopathy is a rare late complication of radiotherapy that can cause significant morbidity [1]. The current brachial plexus dose constraint guidelines, set before the intensity-modulated radiotherapy era, suggest <60 Gy [2].We retrospectively evaluated the radiation doses received by the brachial plexus during radical image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy using a simultaneous integrated boost technique in head and neck cancer and assessed the association between radiation doses delivered to different neck node levels and the maximum brachial plexus dose.