How should we describe the radiobiologic effect of extracranial stereotactic radiosurgery: Equivalent uniform dose or tumor control probability?

Abstract

Extracranial stereotactic radiosurgery (ESR) is now undergoing clinical investigation at numerous institutions as a treatment for solitary malignant lesions. Because there is no standard ESR technique, the same minimum dose might be applied through widely variable target dose-volume histograms. For multicenter trials of ESR or interinstitutional comparisons, a reliable index of radiobiological dose equivalency might facilitate the evaluation of dose-response relationships. Equivalent uniform dose (EUD) and tumor control probability (TCP) were considered for this application. While EUD appears more robust for the prospective description of ESR, TCP is expected to remain more valuable for a post hoc estimation of radiosensitivity parameters.