Effects of metal implants and validation of four treatment planning methods used for radiotherapy dose calculation

Background: The radiotherapy treatment planning process involves target delineation and dose calculation, both of which directly depend on image quality and Hounsfield unit (HU) accuracy of computed tomography (CT) images. CT images of patients having metal implants undergo image quality deterioration and show inaccurate HU values due to various artifacts. Metal artifact reduction (MAR) is used to improve the image quality. In this study, four treatment planning methods with and without MAR, in combination with actual and assigned HU values, were analyzed for dose calculation accuracy. The aim was to study the effects of metal implants on planning CT and to evaluate the dose calculation accuracy of four treatment planning methods for radiotherapy. Materials and methods: Two phantoms with six different metal inserts were scanned in the extended HU mode, with and without MAR. Geometry verification and HU analysis of the metals and the surrounding region were carried out. Water equivalent distance (WED) measurements and dose calculation for each metal insert were done in the treatment planning system (TPS) using the anisotropic analytical algorithm (AAA). Point dose and two-dimensional dose distribution were studied. Percentage variation analysis between calculated and measured doses and gamma evaluation were conducted to determine the most suitable method for treatment planning. Conclusion: This study concludes that an MARCT image with an assigned HU similar to that of the metal implant is better for contouring and high dose calculation accuracy. If MAR is not available, the actual HU value from the extended HU CT for the metal should be used for dose calculation