[Construction of radiobiological models as TCP (tumor control probability) and NTCP (normal tissue complication probability): from dose to clinical effects prediction]

Abstract

In radiotherapy, the dose prescription is currently based on discretized dose-effects records that do not take into fully account for the complexity of the patient-dose-response relationship. Their predictive performance on both anti-tumour efficacy and toxicity can be optimized by integrating radiobiological models. It is with this in mind that the calculation models TCP (Tumor Control Probability) and NTCP (Normal Tissue Complication Probability) have been developed. Their construction involves several important steps that are necessary and important to understand. The first step is based on radiobiological models allowing to calculate according to more or less complexity the rate of surviving cells after irradiation. Two additional steps are required to convert the physical dose into an equivalent biological dose, in particular a 2Gy equivalent biological dose (EQD2): first to take into account the effect of the fractionation of the dose for both the target volume and the organs at risk; second to convert an heterogeneous dose to an organ into an homogeneous dose having the same effect (Niemierko generalized equivalent uniform dose (gEUD)). Finally, the process of predicting clinical effects based on radiobiological models transform doses into tumour control (TCP) or toxicity (NTCP) probabilities using parameters that reflect the radiobiological characteristics of the tissues in question. The use of these models in current practice is still limited, but since the radiotherapy softwares increasingly integrate them, it is important to know the principle and limits of application of these models.

Keywords: Bio-mathematical models; Biological effects; Effets biologiques; Linear quadratic; Linéaire quadratique; Modèles biomathématiques; NTCP; Radiotherapy; Radiothérapie; TCP; TCP, NTCP.