Red bone marrow dose calculations in radiotherapy of prostate cancer based on the updated VCH adult male phantom

Red bone marrow (RBM) is an important dose-limiting tissue that has high radiosensitivity but is difficult to identify on clinical medical images. In this study, we investigated dose distribution in RBM for prostate cancer radiotherapy. Four suborgans were identified in the skeleton of the visible Chinese human phantom: cortical bone (CB), trabecular bone (TB), RBM, and yellow bone marrow (YBM). Dose distributions in the phantom were evaluated by the Monte Carlo method. When the left os coxae was taken as the organ-at-risk (OAR), the difference in absorbed dose between RBM and each CB and TB was up to 20%, but was much less (≤3.1%) between RBM and YBM. When the left os coxae and entire bone were both taken as OARs, RBM dose also increased with increasing planning target volume size. The results indicate the validity of using dose to homogeneous bone marrow mixture for estimating dose to RBM when RBM is not available in computational phantoms. In addition, the human skeletal system developed in this study provides a model for considering RBM dose in radiotherapy planning.