Assessment of Target Definition for Extramedullary Soft Tissue Plasmacytoma: Use of Multımodalıty Imaging for Improved Targetıng Accuracy

Objective: Extramedullary soft tissue plasmacytoma is a relatively rare type of plasma cell neoplasms mostly occurring in the head and neck region and mucosal area of the upper aerodigestive passages.Radiation therapy (RT) may be utilized for management of extraosseous soft tissue plasmacytomas.improved target definition may be considered as a highly important component of current sophisticated RT approaches.While the most common practice includes the utilization of Computed Tomography (CT) simulation for acquisition of RT planning images, incorporation of other imaging modalities such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) may add to the accuracy of target definition.In this original research article, we assess target definition for extramedullary soft tissue plasmacytoma.Materials and Methods: The patients who have been referred to Department of Radiation Oncology at Gulhane Medical Faculty, University of Health Sciences for radiotherapeutic management of extramedullary soft tissue plasmaytomas were assessed for target definition based on CT only or fused CT-MRI.Results: Comparative analysis has revealed that utilization of fused CT-MRI based target definition has been identical with ground truth target volume definition for assessed patients with extramedullary soft tissue plasmacytoma.Conclusion: CT may serve as a preferable method for imaging and dose calculation purposes.However, integration of other imaging modalities may contribute to optimization of target definition for improved targeting accuracy.Our results support the utility of multimodality imaging for precise radiotherapeutic management of extramedullary soft tissue plasmacytomas.Clearly, future studies are needed to shed light on this critical issue.