Including oxygen enhancement ratio in ion beam treatment planning: model implementation and experimental verification

We present a method for adapting a biologically optimized treatment planning for particle beams to a spatially inhomogeneous tumor sensitivity due to hypoxia, and detected e.g., by PET functional imaging. The TRiP98 code, established treatment planning system for particles, has been extended for including explicitly the oxygen enhancement ratio (OER) in the biological effect calculation, providing the first set up of a dedicated ion beam treatment planning approach directed to hypoxic tumors, TRiP-OER, here reported together with experimental tests. A simple semi-empirical model for calculating the OER as a function of oxygen concentration and dose averaged linear energy transfer, generating input tables for the program is introduced. The code is then extended in order to import such tables coming from the present or alternative models, accordingly and to perform forward and inverse planning, i.e., predicting the survival response of differently oxygenated areas as well as optimizing the required dose for restoring a uniform survival effect in the whole irradiated target. The multiple field optimization results show how the program selects the best beam components for treating the hypoxic regions. The calculations performed for different ions, provide indications for the possible clinical advantages of a multi-ion treatment. Finally the predictivity of the code is tested through dedicated cell culture experiments on extended targets irradiation using specially designed hypoxic chambers, providing a qualitative agreement, despite some limits in full survival calculations arising from the RBE assessment. The comparison of the predictions resulting by using different model tables are also reported. (paper)