The comparison of 2-D and 3-D treatment plans for head-neck patients in radiotherapy

Technological developments in radiation-producing devices used in the treatment of cancer both have enabled giving a more effective dose to tumor and providing more protection of the normal tissues. Noteworthy improvements in cancer treatment have been seen by the development of standard treatment methods.The purpose of this study is to verify the advantages of three-dimensional treatment techniques as comparing two- dimensional treatment plans. The information was given for medical applications, as well as physics topics and, basic resources, and scientific research about the subject was used at the preparation of the study.In this study, two-dimensional (conventional) and three-dimensional (conformal) radiotherapy technique plannings of 4 nasopharyngeal cancer patients and 4 laryngeal cancer patients radiotherapy has been put in practice in Ankara University, Cebeci Hospital, Radiation Oncology Clinic, was compared.As a result, it has been obtained that the three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy technique enables to give a high dose to the tumor using multiple areas and to protect the normal tissue and the critical organs which are surrounding the cancer. These obtained results of 4 laryngeal and 4 nasopharyngeal cancer treatments have shown the superiority of the conformal radiotherapy to conventional technique.Key words: Absorbed dose, Radioactivity, conformal radiotherapy, nasopharyngeal cancer, laryngeal cancer