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Little MP, Bazyka D, de Gonzalez AB, Brenner AV, Chumak VV, Cullings HM, Daniels RD, French B, Grant E, Hamada N, Hauptmann M, Kendall GM, Laurier D, Lee C, Lee WJ, Linet MS, Mabuchi K, Morton LM, Muirhead CR, Preston DL, Rajaraman P, Richardson DB, Sakata R, Samet JM, Simon SL, Sugiyama H, Wakeford R, Zablotska LB. A Historical Survey of Key Epidemiological Studies of Ionizing Radiation Exposure. Radiat Res 2024; 202:432-487. [PMID: 39021204 PMCID: PMC11316622 DOI: 10.1667/rade-24-00021.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2024] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024]
Abstract
In this article we review the history of key epidemiological studies of populations exposed to ionizing radiation. We highlight historical and recent findings regarding radiation-associated risks for incidence and mortality of cancer and non-cancer outcomes with emphasis on study design and methods of exposure assessment and dose estimation along with brief consideration of sources of bias for a few of the more important studies. We examine the findings from the epidemiological studies of the Japanese atomic bomb survivors, persons exposed to radiation for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes, those exposed to environmental sources including Chornobyl and other reactor accidents, and occupationally exposed cohorts. We also summarize results of pooled studies. These summaries are necessarily brief, but we provide references to more detailed information. We discuss possible future directions of study, to include assessment of susceptible populations, and possible new populations, data sources, study designs and methods of analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark P. Little
- Radiation Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-9778, USA
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK
| | - Dimitry Bazyka
- National Research Center for Radiation Medicine, Hematology and Oncology, 53 Melnikov Street, Kyiv 04050, Ukraine
| | | | - Alina V. Brenner
- Radiation Effects Research Foundation, 5-2 Hijiyama Park, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 732-0815, Japan
| | - Vadim V. Chumak
- National Research Center for Radiation Medicine, Hematology and Oncology, 53 Melnikov Street, Kyiv 04050, Ukraine
| | - Harry M. Cullings
- Radiation Effects Research Foundation, 5-2 Hijiyama Park, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 732-0815, Japan
| | - Robert D. Daniels
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Benjamin French
- Department of Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Eric Grant
- Radiation Effects Research Foundation, 5-2 Hijiyama Park, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 732-0815, Japan
| | - Nobuyuki Hamada
- Biology and Environmental Chemistry Division, Sustainable System Research Laboratory, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), 1646 Abiko, Chiba 270-1194, Japan
| | - Michael Hauptmann
- Institute of Biostatistics and Registry Research, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, 16816 Neuruppin, Germany
| | - Gerald M. Kendall
- Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Richard Doll Building, Old Road Campus, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7LF, UK
| | - Dominique Laurier
- Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety, Fontenay aux Roses France
| | - Choonsik Lee
- Radiation Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-9778, USA
| | - Won Jin Lee
- Department of Preventive Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Martha S. Linet
- Radiation Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-9778, USA
| | - Kiyohiko Mabuchi
- Radiation Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-9778, USA
| | - Lindsay M. Morton
- Radiation Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-9778, USA
| | | | | | - Preetha Rajaraman
- Radiation Effects Research Foundation, 5-2 Hijiyama Park, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 732-0815, Japan
| | - David B. Richardson
- Environmental and Occupational Health, 653 East Peltason, University California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-3957 USA
| | - Ritsu Sakata
- Radiation Effects Research Foundation, 5-2 Hijiyama Park, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 732-0815, Japan
| | - Jonathan M. Samet
- Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, Aurora, Colorado, USA
| | - Steven L. Simon
- Radiation Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892-9778, USA
| | - Hiromi Sugiyama
- Radiation Effects Research Foundation, 5-2 Hijiyama Park, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 732-0815, Japan
| | - Richard Wakeford
- Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, The University of Manchester, Ellen Wilkinson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
| | - Lydia B. Zablotska
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 550 16 Street, 2 floor, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
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McAleer MF, Melchior P, Parkes J, Pater L, Rübe C, Saunders D, Paulino AC, Janssens GO, Kalapurakal J. Harmonica consensus, controversies, and future directions in radiotherapy for pediatric Wilms tumors. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2022; 70 Suppl 2:e30090. [PMID: 36482883 DOI: 10.1002/pbc.30090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2022] [Revised: 10/16/2022] [Accepted: 10/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Radiotherapy (RT) is essential for multimodality treatment of pediatric renal tumors, particularly in higher-risk and metastatic disease. Despite decades of use, particularly for Wilms tumor, there remain controversies regarding RT indications, timing, dose, and targets. To align global management, we address these issues in this international HARMONIsation and CollAboration (HARMONICA) project. There are multiple knowledge gaps and opportunities for future research including: (1) utilization of advanced RT technologies, including intensity-modulated RT, proton beam therapy, combined with image-guided RT to reduce target volumes; (2) impact of molecular biomarkers including loss of heterozygosity at 1p, 16q, and 1q gain on RT indications; (3) mitigation of reproductive toxicity following RT; (4) promotion of RT late effects research; and (5) support to overcome challenges in RT utilization in low- and middle-income countries where 90% of the world's children reside. Here, we outline current status and future directions for RT in pediatric renal tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mary Frances McAleer
- Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Patrick Melchior
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg, Germany
| | - Jeannette Parkes
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Groote Schuur Hospital and University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.,Low- and Middle-Income Countries Committee Co-Chair, Paediatric Radiation Oncology Society, Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Luke Pater
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
| | - Christian Rübe
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg, Germany
| | | | - Arnold C Paulino
- Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
| | - Geert O Janssens
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.,Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - John Kalapurakal
- Department of Radiation Oncology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA
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Gupta AC, Owens CA, Shrestha S, Lee C, Smith SA, Weathers RE, Netherton T, Balter PA, Kry SF, Followill DS, Griffin KT, Long JP, Armstrong GT, Howell RM. Body region-specific 3D age-scaling functions for scaling whole-body computed tomography anatomy for pediatric late effects studies. Biomed Phys Eng Express 2022; 8:10.1088/2057-1976/ac3f4e. [PMID: 34874300 PMCID: PMC9547666 DOI: 10.1088/2057-1976/ac3f4e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2021] [Accepted: 12/02/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Purpose.Radiation epidemiology studies of childhood cancer survivors treated in the pre-computed tomography (CT) era reconstruct the patients' treatment fields on computational phantoms. For such studies, the phantoms are commonly scaled to age at the time of radiotherapy treatment because age is the generally available anthropometric parameter. Several reference size phantoms are used in such studies, but reference size phantoms are only available at discrete ages (e.g.: newborn, 1, 5, 10, 15, and Adult). When such phantoms are used for RT dose reconstructions, the nearest discrete-aged phantom is selected to represent a survivor of a specific age. In this work, we (1) conducted a feasibility study to scale reference size phantoms at discrete ages to various other ages, and (2) evaluated the dosimetric impact of using exact age-scaled phantoms as opposed to nearest age-matched phantoms at discrete ages.Methods.We have adopted the University of Florida/National Cancer Institute (UF/NCI) computational phantom library for our studies. For the feasibility study, eight male and female reference size UF/NCI phantoms (5, 10, 15, and 35 years) were downscaled to fourteen different ages which included next nearest available lower discrete ages (1, 5, 10 and 15 years) and the median ages at the time of RT for Wilms' tumor (3.9 years), craniospinal (8.0 years), and all survivors (9.1 years old) in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) expansion cohort treated with RT. The downscaling was performed using our in-house age scaling functions (ASFs). To geometrically validate the scaling, Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), mean distance to agreement (MDA), and Euclidean distance (ED) were calculated between the scaled and ground-truth discrete-aged phantom (unscaled UF/NCI) for whole-body, brain, heart, liver, pancreas, and kidneys. Additionally, heights of the scaled phantoms were compared with ground-truth phantoms' height, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 50th percentile height. Scaled organ masses were compared with ground-truth organ masses. For the dosimetric assessment, one reference size phantom and seventeen body-size dependent 5-year-old phantoms (9 male and 8 female) of varying body mass indices (BMI) were downscaled to 3.9-year-old dimensions for two different radiation dose studies. For the first study, we simulated a 6 MV photon right-sided flank field RT plan on a reference size 5-year-old and 3.9-year-old (both of healthy BMI), keeping the field size the same in both cases. Percent of volume receiving dose ≥15 Gy (V15) and the mean dose were calculated for the pancreas, liver, and stomach. For the second study, the same treatment plan, but with patient anatomy-dependent field sizes, was simulated on seventeen body-size dependent 5- and 3.9-year-old phantoms with varying BMIs. V15, mean dose, and minimum dose received by 1% of the volume (D1), and by 95% of the volume (D95) were calculated for pancreas, liver, stomach, left kidney (contralateral), right kidney, right and left colons, gallbladder, thoracic vertebrae, and lumbar vertebrae. A non-parametric Wilcoxon rank-sum test was performed to determine if the dose to organs of exact age-scaled and nearest age-matched phantoms were significantly different (p < 0.05).Results.In the feasibility study, the best DSCs were obtained for the brain (median: 0.86) and whole-body (median: 0.91) while kidneys (median: 0.58) and pancreas (median: 0.32) showed poorer agreement. In the case of MDA and ED, whole-body, brain, and kidneys showed tighter distribution and lower median values as compared to other organs. For height comparison, the overall agreement was within 2.8% (3.9 cm) and 3.0% (3.2 cm) of ground-truth UF/NCI and CDC reported 50th percentile heights, respectively. For mass comparison, the maximum percent and absolute differences between the scaled and ground-truth organ masses were within 31.3% (29.8 g) and 211.8 g (16.4%), respectively (across all ages). In the first dosimetric study, absolute difference up to 6% and 1.3 Gy was found for V15and mean dose, respectively. In the second dosimetric study, V15and mean dose were significantly different (p < 0.05) for all studied organs except the fully in-beam organs. D1and D95were not significantly different for most organs (p > 0.05).Conclusion.We have successfully evaluated our ASFs by scaling UF/NCI computational phantoms from one age to another age, which demonstrates the feasibility of scaling any CT-based anatomy. We have found that dose to organs of exact age-scaled and nearest aged-matched phantoms are significantly different (p < 0.05) which indicates that using the exact age-scaled phantoms for retrospective dosimetric studies is a better approach.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aashish C. Gupta
- Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX USA
| | - Constance A. Owens
- Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX USA
| | - Suman Shrestha
- Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX USA
| | - Choonsik Lee
- Radiation Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD USA
| | - Susan A. Smith
- Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA
| | - Rita E. Weathers
- Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA
| | - Tucker Netherton
- Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA
| | - Peter A. Balter
- Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX USA
| | - Stephen F. Kry
- Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX USA
| | - David S. Followill
- Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX USA
| | - Keith T. Griffin
- Radiation Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD USA,George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA USA
| | - James P. Long
- The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX USA,Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA
| | - Gregory T. Armstrong
- Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN USA
| | - Rebecca M. Howell
- Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX USA,The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX USA,Address for correspondence: Rebecca M. Howell, Director, Radiation Dosimetry Services, Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 8060 El Rio St., Unit 605, Houston, TX 77054,
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Wang Z, Virgolin M, Bosman PAN, Crama KF, Balgobind BV, Bel A, Alderliesten T. Automatic generation of three-dimensional dose reconstruction data for two-dimensional radiotherapy plans for historically treated patients. J Med Imaging (Bellingham) 2020; 7:015001. [PMID: 32042857 DOI: 10.1117/1.jmi.7.1.015001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2019] [Accepted: 01/17/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Performing large-scale three-dimensional radiation dose reconstruction for patients requires a large amount of manual work. We present an image processing-based pipeline to automatically reconstruct radiation dose. The pipeline was designed for childhood cancer survivors that received abdominal radiotherapy with anterior-to-posterior and posterior-to-anterior field set-up. First, anatomical landmarks are automatically identified on two-dimensional radiographs. Second, these landmarks are used to derive parameters to emulate the geometry of the plan on a surrogate computed tomography. Finally, the plan is emulated and used as input for dose calculation. For qualitative evaluation, 100 cases of automatic and manual plan emulations were assessed by two experienced radiation dosimetrists in a blinded comparison. The two radiation dosimetrists approved 100%/100% and 92%/91% of the automatic/manual plan emulations, respectively. Similar approval rates of 100% and 94% hold when the automatic pipeline is applied on another 50 cases. Further, quantitative comparisons resulted in on average < 5 mm difference in plan isocenter/borders, and < 0.9 Gy in organ mean dose (prescribed dose: 14.4 Gy) calculated from the automatic and manual plan emulations. No statistically significant difference in terms of dose reconstruction accuracy was found for most organs at risk. Ultimately, our automatic pipeline results are of sufficient quality to enable effortless scaling of dose reconstruction data generation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ziyuan Wang
- University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, Department of Radiation Oncology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Marco Virgolin
- Centrum Wiskunde and Informatica, Life Sciences and Health Group, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Peter A N Bosman
- Centrum Wiskunde and Informatica, Life Sciences and Health Group, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Koen F Crama
- University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, Department of Radiation Oncology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Brian V Balgobind
- University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, Department of Radiation Oncology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Arjan Bel
- University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, Department of Radiation Oncology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Tanja Alderliesten
- University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, Department of Radiation Oncology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Schneider CW, Newhauser WD, Wilson LJ, Kapsch RP. A physics-based analytical model of absorbed dose from primary, leakage, and scattered photons from megavoltage radiotherapy with MLCs. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2019; 64:185017. [DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/ab303a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
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Griffin KT, Mille MM, Pelletier C, Gopalakrishnan M, Jung JW, Lee C, Kalapurakal J, Pyakuryal A, Lee C. Conversion of computational human phantoms into DICOM-RT for normal tissue dose assessment in radiotherapy patients. Phys Med Biol 2019; 64:13NT02. [PMID: 31158829 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/ab2670] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Radiotherapy (RT) treatment planning systems (TPS) are designed for the fast calculation of dose to the tumor bed and nearby organs at risk using x-ray computed tomography (CT) images. However, CT images for a patient are typically available for only a small portion of the body, and in some cases, such as for retrospective epidemiological studies, no images may be available at all. When dose to organs that lie out-of-scan must be estimated, a convenient alternative for the unknown patient anatomy is to use a matching whole-body computational phantom as a surrogate. The purpose of the current work is to connect such computational phantoms to commercial RT TPS for retrospective organ dose estimation. A custom software with graphical user interface (GUI), called the DICOM-RT Generator, was developed in MATLAB to convert voxel computational phantoms into the digital imaging and communications in medicine radiotherapy (DICOM-RT) format, compatible with commercial TPS. DICOM CT image sets for the phantoms are created via a density-to-Hounsfield unit (HU) conversion curve. Accompanying structure sets containing the organ contours are automatically generated by tracing binary masks of user-specified organs on each phantom CT slice. The software was tested on a library of body size-dependent phantoms, the International Commission on Radiological Protection reference phantoms, and a canine voxel phantom, taking only a few minutes per conversion. The resulting DICOM-RT files were tested on several commercial TPS. As an example application, a library of converted phantoms was used to estimate organ doses for members of the National Wilms Tumor Study (NWTS) cohort. The converted phantom library, in DICOM format, and a standalone MATLAB-compiled executable of the DICOM-RT Generator are available for others to use for research purposes (http://ncidose.cancer.gov).
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Affiliation(s)
- Keith T Griffin
- Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD 20850, United States of America
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