ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S2058

Clinical - Paediatric

ESTRO 2024

Keywords: Craniospinal irradiation, scalp threshold dose

2842

Digital Poster

Advanced radiotherapy techniques for pediatric brain tumors in a Sub-Saharan African Center.

Adedayo Joseph 1,2 , Adeseye M Akinsete 3 , Ugonna Fakile 4 , Muhammad Habeebu 5 , Samuel O Adeneye 6 , Abdallah E Kotkat 7,8 , Aishat Oladipo 9 , Omolola O Adisa 10 , Oluwafunmilayo Fagbemide 1 , Nusirat Adedewe 6 , Olufemi B Bankole 11 , Wilfred Ngwa 12 1 NSIA-LUTH Cancer Center, Clinical Radiation Oncology, Lagos, Nigeria. 2 Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Clinical Radiation Oncology, Lagos, Nigeria. 3 University of Lagos, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria. 4 Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Pediatric Oncology Unit, Lagos, Nigeria. 5 College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Department of Radiation Biology, Radiotherapy and Radiodiagnosis, Lagos, Nigeria. 6 NSIA-LUTH Cancer Center, Medical Physics Department, Lagos, Nigeria. 7 NSIA-LUTH Cancer Center, Radiation Therapy Department, Lagos, Nigeria. 8 Tanta University Hospital, Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Department, Tanta city, Egypt. 9 NSIA-LUTH Cancer Center, Clinical Research, Lagos, Nigeria. 10 Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Department of Pediatrics, Lagos, Nigeria. 11 Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Neurosurgical Unit, Department of Surgery, Lagos, Nigeria. 12 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, -, Baltimore, USA Brain tumors are among the most common solid tumors in pediatric patients. Radiation therapy is an essential part of pediatric brain tumor treatment as definitive, concurrent or adjuvant therapy. Radiation therapy to the brain carries a risk of long-term adverse events such as functional deficits in pediatric patients. Radiation therapy has evolved significantly since inception, and newer more advanced techniques deliver highly conformal treatments to well-delineated targets protecting normal tissues. This enables dose escalation to maximize the dose to the tumor while reducing the risk of toxicity to surrounding normal tissues, improving survival outcomes and decreasing side effects. Some of the newer and more advanced radiation therapy techniques use increasingly conformal treatments from three - dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT), intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT), stereotactic radiotherapy, and the use of charged particle therapy such as proton radiotherapy. These techniques serve similar purposes of increasingly shaping the treatment delivery to the tumor volume while reducing the dose to nearby structures. While these newer techniques are increasingly widely distributed and readily available in developed countries, there are well-documented limitations and barriers to the availability of radiation facilities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Some SSA countries currently have no radiotherapy capability or facilities at all, while others still rely on the older radiation techniques and methods such as two-dimensional (2D) radiotherapy. Access to advanced radiotherapy techniques in pediatric cancer patients in SSA remains limited due to infrastructural deficits, personnel shortages and inadequate expertise and training. In Nigeria, a densely populated country, there has been a recent increase in radiotherapy access and capability with the commissioning of new well-equipped and staffed centers of radiation. The demand for radiotherapy however continues to outpace the rate of development, especially in relation to advanced techniques and pediatric populations. Purpose/Objective: