Breast cancer regional radiation fields for supraclavicular and axillary lymph node treatment: is a posterior axillary boost field technique optimal?

PURPOSE: To assess whether using an anterior oblique supraclavicular (SCV) field with a posterior axillary boost (PAB) field is an optimal technique for targeting axillary (AX) lymph nodes compared with two computed tomography (CT)-based techniques: (1) an SCV field with an anterior boost field and (2) intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).

METHODS AND MATERIALS: Ten patients with CT simulation data treated with postmastectomy radiation that included an SCV field were selected for the study. Supraclavicular nodes and AX Level I-III nodes within the SCV field were contoured and defined as the treatment target. Plans using the three techniques were generated and evaluated for each patient.

RESULTS: The anterior axillary boost field and IMRT resulted in superior dose coverage compared with PAB. Namely, treatment volumes that received 105%, 80%, and 30% of prescribed dose for IMRT plans were significantly less than those for the anterior axillary boost plans, which were significantly less than PAB. For PAB and anterior axillary boost plans, there was a linear correlation between treatment volume receiving 105% of prescribed dose and maximum target depth. Furthermore, the IMRT technique resulted in better lung sparing and dose conformity to the target than anterior axillary boost, which again was significantly better than PAB. The maximum cord dose for IMRT was small, but higher than for the other two techniques. More monitor units were required to deliver the IMRT plan than the PAB plan, which was more than the anterior axillary boost plan.

CONCLUSIONS: The PAB technique is not optimal for treatment of AX lymph nodes in an SCV field. We conclude that CT treatment planning with dose optimization around delineated target volumes should become standard for radiation treatments of supraclavicular and AX lymph nodes.