Research Masterclass in Radiotherapy Physics 2017

Overcoming organ-based approach of dose-volume modelling

Cella et al. PlosOne2014, Complication Probability Models for Radiation-Induced Heart Valvular Dysfunction: Do Heart-Lung Interactions Play a Role?.

 The organ-based DVH approach is clearly a (useful) “hard constraint” not reflecting the real world in many situations:  1) Symptoms may depend on the dose received by multiple organs  2) Organs are not “homogenous entities” from the point of view of their response to radiation and their functions