The Use of Helical Tomotherapy to Achieve Dose-per-fraction Escalation in Lung Cancer

The purpose of this trial is to pilot reducing the duration of radiation treatment for lung cancer patients from 6 to 5 weeks using tomotherapy. Specific patient doses will be based on tumor volume being treated. Modeling has shown that increased biologically effective dose (BED) to tumors can be achieved by shortening the radiation delivery schedule and increasing the dose per fraction. This requires decreasing the total dose to hold lung toxicity constant at each dose per fraction level. This is a major paradigm shift in the treatment in this disease and is projected to result in significant improvements in patient outcome as well as a substantial cost savings.