Treatment planning for very high energy electrons: Studies that indicate the potential of the modality

Background and purpose

Radiotherapy using Very High Energy Electrons (VHEE) has the potential to reduce dose to organs at risk compared to photons. This article therefore reviews treatment planning for VHEE, to clarify the potential benefit of the modality.

Materials and methods

Articles on VHEE were identified and those which focused on treatment planning were manually selected, particularly those which contained results on patient datasets. Benefits in absorbed dose to organs at risk were converted to percentages of prescription dose so as to provide uniform, clinically relevant reporting.

Results

Increased beam energy was found to reduce electron scatter and give rise to a narrower penumbra but lead to a rather constant depth dose curve, which was not as useful for sparing normal tissues as that of protons. The sharp penumbra of VHEE was of benefit in treatment planning for producing treatment plans with conformal dose shaping, with improved dose to critical structures being demonstrated for several treatment sites. Mean dose to critical structures, relative to the prescribed dose, was in the order of 0–10% lower than photons and 0–10% higher than protons. The delivery technology and dose distributions were also promising for radiotherapy with ultra-high dose rate (FLASH).

Conclusion

At present, the potential clinical benefit of VHEE relative to photons or protons is small. Further studies are needed to more precisely quantify the relative performance of broad beams versus pencil beam scanning and to investigate treatment sites that might benefit maximally from the use of VHEE beams.