Is prone free breathing better than supine deep inspiration breath-hold for left whole-breast radiotherapy? A dosimetric analysis

Purpose The advantage of prone setup compared with supine for left-breast radiotherapy is controversial. We evaluate the dosimetric gain of prone setup and aim to identify predictors of the gain. Methods Left-sided breast cancer patients who had dual computed tomography (CT) planning in prone free breathing (FB) and supine deep inspiration breath-hold (DiBH) were retrospectively identified. Radiation doses to heart, lungs, breasts, and tumor bed were evaluated using the recently developed mean absolute dose deviation (MADD). MADD measures how widely the dose delivered to a structure deviates from a reference dose specified for the structure. A penalty score was computed for every treatment plan as a weighted sum of the MADDs normalized to the breast prescribed dose. Changes in penalty scores when switching from supine to prone were assessed by paired t- tests and by the number of patients with a reduction of the penalty score (i.e., gain). Robust linear regression and fractional polynomials were used to correlate patients’ characteristics and their respective penalty scores. Results Among 116 patients identified with dual CT planning, the prone setup, compared with supine, was associated with a dosimetric gain in 72 (62.1%, 95% CI: 52.6–70.9%). The most significant predictors of a gain with the prone setup were the breast depth prone/supine ratio (>1.6), breast depth difference (>31 mm), prone breast depth (>77 mm), and breast volume (>282 mL). Conclusion Prone compared with supine DiBH was associated with a dosimetric gain in 62.1% of our left-sided breast cancer patients. High pendulousness and moderately large breast predicted for the gain.