Dosimetric parameters associated with radiation-induced esophagitis in breast cancer patients undergoing regional nodal irradiation

Highlights: • We found that >15% of RNI patients developed symptomatic esophagitis. • IMRT use was associated with higher rates of esophagitis. • The esophagus OAR was systematically contoured from cricoid to carina. • We propose these esophageal OAR constraints: mean Rates of acute esophagitis in breast cancer patients undergoing regional nodal irradiation (RNI) are under-reported. We set to identify esophageal dose–volume constraints associated with grade 2 esophagitis (G2E). We hypothesized that the G2E rate was higher with intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) vs. 3D conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT).