Patient-Specific Modeling of Dose-Escalated Proton Beam Therapy for Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that dose-escalated proton beam therapy can be safely and effectively used for certain patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer, especially smaller tumors, offering better tumor control than stereotactic radiotherapy.

Contribution

It introduces a patient-specific modeling approach to evaluate the feasibility and benefits of dose-escalated proton therapy for pancreatic cancer treatment.

Findings

Dose escalation is feasible mainly for tumors ≤4.5 cm.

Dose-escalated proton therapy shows higher tumor control probabilities than SABR.

Hypofractioned dPBT achieves >90% tumor control for small tumors.

Abstract

Purpose: This study explores the feasibility of dose-escalated proton beam therapy (dPBT) for Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer (LAPC) patients by modeling common patient scenarios using current clinically-adopted practices. Methods: Five patient datasets were used as simulation phantoms, each with six tumour sizes, to systematically simulate treatment scenarios typical in LAPC patients. Using the Raystation treatment planning system, robustly-optimised dPBT and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) treatment plans were created with a 5 mm margin allowing for intra- and inter-fraction anatomical changes. following clinically-adopted protocols. Safe dose-escalation feasibility is assessed with dose metrics, tumour control (TCP) and normal tissue complication probabilities (NTCP) for average and worst-case intra-fraction motion scenarios. Significance testing was performed using a paired student's t-test. Results: Dose-escalation feasibility is largely dependent on tumour size and proximity to critical structures. Minimal therapeutic benefit was observed for patients with greater than 4.5 cm tumours, however for tumours less than or equal to 4.5 cm dPBT TCPs of 45-90% compared to SABR TCPs of 10-40% (p<0.05). The worst-case scenario dPBT TCP was comparable to SABR. Hypofractioned dPBT further improved this result to greater than 90% (p<0.05) for tumours less than or equal to 4.5 cm. Conclusion: Safe dPBT is feasible for patients with targets up to the median size and see a significant therapeutic benefit compared to the current standard of care in SABR. A patient-specific approach should be taken based on tumour size and surrounding anatomy.