Adaptive brachytherapy treatment planning for cervical cancer using FDG-PET

Purpose: A dosimetric study was conducted to compare intracavitary brachytherapy using both a conventional and a custom loading intended to cover a positron emission tomography (PET)-defined tumor volume in patients with cervix cancer. Methods and Materials: Eleven patients who underwent an [¹⁸F]-fluoro-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG)-PET in conjunction with their first, middle, or last brachytherapy treatment were included in this prospective study. A standard plan that delivers 6.5 Gy to point A under ideal conditions was compared with an optimized plan designed to conform the 6.5-Gy isodose surface to the PET defined volume. Results: A total of 31 intracavitary brachytherapy treatments in conjunction with an FDG-PET were performed. The percent coverage of the target isodose surface for the first implant with and without optimization was 73% and 68% (p = 0.21). The percent coverage of the target isodose surface for the mid/final implant was 83% and 70% (p = 0.02), respectively. The dose to point A was higher with the optimized plans for both the first implant (p = 0.02) and the mid/last implants (p = 0.008). The dose to 2 cm³ and 5 cm³ of both the bladder and rectum were not significantly different. Conclusions: FDG-PET based treatment planning allowed for improved dose coverage of the tumor without significantly increasing the dose to the bladder and rectum.