Radiation Oncology BioMed Central Open Access Methodology Simultaneous integrated boost radiotherapy for bilateral breast: a treatment planning and dosimetric comparison for volumetric modulated arc and fixed field intensity modulated therapy Giorgia Nicolini, Alessandro Clivio, Antonella Fogliata, Eugenio Vanetti and Luca Cozzi* Address: Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Medical Physics Unit, Bellinzona, Switzerland Email: Giorgia Nicolini - giorgia.nicolini@eoc.ch; Alessandro Clivio - alessandro.clivio@eoc.ch; Antonella Fogliata - afc@iosi.ch; Eugenio Vanetti - eugenio.vanetti@eoc.ch; Luca Cozzi* - lucozzi@iosi.ch * Corresponding author Published: 24 July 2009 Radiation Oncology 2009, 4:27 doi:10.1186/1748-717X-4-27 Received: 26 May 2009 Accepted: 24 July 2009 This article is available from: http://www.ro-journal.com/content/4/1/27 © 2009 Nicolini et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited Abstract Purpose: A study was performed comparing dosimetric characteristics of volumetric modulated arcs (RapidArc, RA) and fixed field intensity modulated therapy (IMRT) on patients with bilateral breast carcinoma Materials and methods: Plans for IMRT and RA, were optimised for 10 patients prescribing 50 Gy to the breast (PTVII, 2.0 Gy/fraction) and 60 Gy to the tumour bed (PTVI, 2.4 Gy/fraction) Objectives were: for PTVs V90%>95%, Dmax