Radiobiological modeling of radiation-induced acute mucosal toxicity (oral mucositis and pharyngeal mucositis): A single-institutional study of head-and-neck carcinoma

Abstract

Purpose/objective(s): This study aimed to estimate the fitting parameters of sigmoidal dose-response (SDR) curve of radiation-induced acute oral and pharyngeal mucositis in head-and-neck (H and N) cancer patients treated with Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) for the calculation of normal tissue complication probability (NTCP).

Materials and methods: Thirty H-and-N cancer patients were enrolled to model the SDR curve for oral and pharyngeal mucositis. The patients were evaluated weekly for acute radiation-induced (ARI) oral and pharyngeal mucositis toxicity, and their scoring was performed as per the common terminology criteria adverse events version 5.0. The radiobiological parameters, namely n, m, TD50, and γ50 were calculated from the fitted SDR curve obtained from the clinical data of H-and-N cancer patients.

Results: ARI toxicity for oral and pharyngeal mucosa in carcinoma of H-and-N cancer patients was calculated for the endpoint oral mucositis and pharyngeal mucositis. The n, m, TD50, and γ50 parameters from the SDR curve of Grade 1 and Grade 2 oral mucositis were found to be [0.10, 0.32, 12.35 ± 3.90 (confidence interval [CI] 95%) and 1.26] and [0.06, 0.33, 20.70 ± 6.95 (CI 95%) and 1.19] respectively. Similarly for pharyngeal mucositis, n, m, TD50, and γ50 parameters for Grade 1 and Grade 2 were found to be [0.07, 0.34, 15.93 ± 5.48 (CI. 95%) and 1.16 ] and [0.04, 0.25, 39.02 ± 9.98(CI. 95%) and 1.56] respectively.

Conclusion: This study presents the fitting parameters for NTCP calculation of Grade 1 and Grade 2 ARI toxicity for the endpoint of oral and pharyngeal mucositis. The provided nomograms of volume versus complication and dose versus complication for different grades of oral mucositis and pharyngeal mucositis help radiation oncologists to decide the limiting dose to reduce the acute toxicities.

Keywords: Acute radiation toxicity; common terminology criteria for adverse events; normal tissue complication probability; oral mucositis; pharyngeal mucositis.