Highlights • Left decubitus positioning increases separation between duodenum and pancreas. • The increase improves duodenum sparing during radiotherapy of pancreatic cancer. • Daily MRI-guided adaptation facilitates the left decubitus positioning.
Background and purpose In radiotherapy (RT) for pancreatic cancer, the dose to adjacent organs-at-risk (OAR) often limits the delivery of curative dose. This work aimed to find a body decubitus position that would lead to increased separation between the duodenum and pancreatic head. Materials and methods Abdominal magnetic resonance images (MRI) of 11 healthy volunteers were acquired using a 1.5T MR-Linac for supine, left decubitus and right decubitus body positions. The geometry changes between different body positions were measured using Hausdorff Distance (HD) and overlap volume. RT plans were created on the MRIs. Commonly used dose-volume parameters (DVP), e.g., V40Gy – volume received at least 40 Gy, for OARs were compared for the three body positions. Results The average of maximum HD between the duodenum and pancreatic head for all the cases was 4.0 ± 3.1 mm for supine, 7.3 ± 4.4 mm for left and 3.3 ± 1.4 mm for right positions (P