Table 5.

The P‐values from plan to plan comparisons of the rectal metrics

Treatment plans		RV60 Gy	RV55 Gy	RV50 Gy	RV46 Gy	RV37 Gy
Pre_IMRT	CRW_IMRT	0.002	0.003	0.004	0.004	0.007
Pre_IMRT	RW_IMRT	0.002	0.002	0.002	0.002	0.002
CRW_IMRT	RW_IMRT	0.890	0.002	0.002	0.002	0.019
Pre_VMAT	CRW_VMAT	0.006	0.002	0.002	0.002	0.002
Pre_VMAT	RW_VMAT	0.003	0.002	0.002	0.002	0.002
CRW_VMAT	RW_VMAT	0.859	0.002	0.002	0.002	0.002
Pre_IMRT	Pre_VMAT	0.917	0.650	0.807	0.650	0.033
CRW_IMRT	CRW_VMAT	0.139	0.814	0.917	0.917	0.039
RW_IMRT	RW_VMAT	0.091	0.594	0.807	0.553	0.753

CRW: composite rectum wall; IMRT: intensity modulated radiotherapy; RW: rectal wall; VMAT: volumetric modulated arc therapy.

Bold values indicate statistical significance below the threshhold of P < 0.01.