Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy versus Conventional Radiotherapy of Early Testicular Seminoma Irradiation: Dosimetric Study

Abstract

Background: Testicular tumor is a rare tumor in men. Testicular seminoma is less aggressive than nonseminoma of germ cell tumors. Adjuvant nodal irradiation is an option of early stages I, IIA and IIB ≤ 3 cm pure seminoma disease. The aim of this study was to investigate which radiotherapy technique is better in nodal irradiation of early stage II pure seminoma, 3D-CRT or VMAT. Methods: This study was done on 5 patients with pure seminoma diagnosed at king Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; all are planned for postoperative radiation therapy with prescribed dose of 3036 Gy in 15-18 fractions according to nodal size. Results: Both techniques achieved comparable target coverage; however VMAT had better dose conformity, dose homogeneity and OARs sparingbut with exposing bigger volumes (V5) of normal tissues to lower dose of radiation while V10 and V15 are bigger in 3D-CRT. Conclusion: VMAT is one of the most common techniques used nowadays due to high therapeutic ratio comparable to the conventional technique however low integral dose (V5) is still one of the drawbacks of modern irradiation techniques which are not the case in conventional techniques.