Principal Component Analysis-Based Pattern Analysis of Dose–Volume Histograms and Influence on Rectal Toxicity

The variability of dose-volume histogram (DVH) shapes in a patient population can be quantified using principal component analysis (PCA). We applied this to rectal DVHs of prostate cancer patients and investigated the correlation of the PCA parameters with late bleeding.PCA was applied to the rectal wall DVHs of 262 patients, who had been treated with a four-field box, conformal adaptive radiotherapy technique. The correlated changes in the DVH...