Dosimetric Comparison of Various Radiotherapy Planning Techniques in Postmastectomy Breast Cancer Patients

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in females worldwide. Radiation therapy has occupied a very important role in the treatment of women with breast cancer in early as well as in advanced stage. Various modern states of art radiotherapy techniques are being used for the treatment of breast cancer. Objectives: The main objective of the study was to compare three different radiotherapy treatment planning techniques, namely three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT), field-in-field forward planned intensity modulated radiotherapy (FIF-FP-IMRT), and inversely planned IMRT (IP-IMRT) in terms of various dosimetric parameters. Materials and Methods: The present study involved 150 postmastectomy breast cancer patients. Treatment plans with three different planning techniques were generated for each patient and were compared for various dosimetric parameters of tumor and normal structures. Results: Statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) were observed for most of the dosimetric parameters on comparing three planning techniques. Conclusion: Most of the parameters were found in favor of IP-IMRT. FIF-FP-IMRT and IP-IMRT has been found better than 3DCRT.