Computational simulation of hypofractionated radiation therapy in breast cancer patients

Abstract

Breast cancer has a high incidence among the female population, and in recent decades, mortality from this disease has been progressively increasing, becoming the second leading cause of death among women. Radiation therapy is an option for cancer treatment and can be administered conventionally, with multiple sessions over weeks, or hypofractionated, with higher doses of radiation given in fewer sessions, reducing the treatment time. Computational technology assists in simulating the behavior of cancer cells in response to each therapeutic approach, both conventional and hypofractionated, across different tumor dimensions. Computational simulation has been a useful tool for analyzing the effect of conventional and hypofractionated radiation therapy on tumor volume. Using Matlab R 2016a software and Simulink, scenarios based on previous studies were created, considering different initial tumor sizes. The simulation results showed significant differences in tumor volume reduction between the two radiation therapy methods. In all evaluated cases, hypofractionated radiation therapy resulted in smaller final volumes compared to conventional radiation therapy. Additionally, it was observed that the efficacy of hypofractionated radiation therapy depended on the applied radiation dose and α/β values, being more effective at higher α/β doses. These results suggest that hypofractionated radiation therapy is an effective approach for breast cancer treatment across different tumor dimensions.