A Stochastic Model for the Normal Tissue Complication Probability (NTCP) in Radiation Treatment of Cancer

Theresa Stocks, Thomas Hillen, Jiafen Gong, Martin Burger

(Submitted on 10 Dec 2014)

The normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) is a measure for the estimated side effects of a given radiation treatment schedule. Here we use a stochastic logistic birth death process to define an organ specific and patient specific NTCP. We emphasise an asymptotic simplification which relates the NTCP to the solution of a logistic differential equation. This framework allows for a direct use of the NTCP model in clinical practice. We formulate, but do not solve, related optimization problems.

link: http://arxiv.org/abs/1412.3441