Heterogeneities existing in the patient during treatment are neglected, as the treated subject is considered homogeneous in most of the commercially-available treatment planning systems (TPSs) used for high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy. The choice of a suitable dosimeter for experimental dosimetry near the HDR source is crucial, mainly due to existence of steep dose gradients. The present work...

PURPOSE A process for prostate high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy was developed and implemented successfully in the community hospital setting. The practical aspects of the program are reviewed and may serve as a foundation for clinics interested in offering this clinical service. METHODS AND MATERIALS A generic needle distribution geometry was established to accommodate target volumes of var...

PURPOSE To gain insight into the accuracy of brachytherapy treatments, the accuracy of implant reconstruction and dose delivery was investigated in 33 radiotherapy institutions in The Netherlands and Belgium. MATERIALS AND METHODS The accuracy of the implant reconstruction method was determined using a cubic phantom containing 25 spheres at well-known positions. Reconstruction measurements we...

PURPOSE High-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy plays a potential curative role in the treatment of prostate cancer. An expert panel was convened to review the recent literature and reach a consensus on its appropriate clinical applications. METHODS AND MATERIALS The American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria are evidence-based guidelines for specific clinical conditions that are revie...

Gynecologic brachytherapy is a form of cancer treatment in which radioactive sources are placed into the pelvic organs via specialized applicators. Traditional low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy has been performed over several days in a hospital setting. Since the 1990s, high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy has been used increasingly because of its decreased treatment time, outpatient administrati...

PURPOSE To compare the outcome of our facility with another about the shortened schedule (60 Gy in 10 fractions to 54 Gy in 9 fractions) of high-dose-rate interstitial brachytherapy (HDR ISBT) for mobile tongue cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS Eighteen patients were treated with HDR ISBT as a monotherapy in dose reduction schedule with some unique technique to determine the border of tumor accura...

PURPOSE To determine the ability of image-guided high-dose-rate brachytherapy (IG-HDR) to provide local control (LC) of lesions in non-traditional locations for patients with heavily pre-treated malignancies. MATERIAL AND METHODS This retrospective series included 18 patients treated between 2012 and 2014 with IG-HDR, either in combination with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT; n = 9) or as m...

The aim of this study was to compare the high dose rate (HDR) iridium 192 source calibration in terms of reference air kerma rate with two types of ionisation chambers (a thimble chamber and a well-type chamber). Dose measurements in water have been also performed with thimble chamber and thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD) in order to validate the absorbed dose to water calculation provided by ...

background: monte carlo and experimental relative dose determination in a water phantom, due to a high dose rate (hdr) 192ir source is presented for real energy spectrum and monochromatic at 356 kev. materials and methods: the dose distribution has been calculated around the 192ir located in the center of 30 cm ×30 cm ×30 cm water phantom using mcnp4c code by monte carlo method. relative dose v...

PURPOSE The common use of nomograms in Low Dose Rate (LDR) permanent prostate brachytherapy (BT) allows to estimate the number of seeds required for an implant. Independent dosimetry verification is recommended for each clinical dosimetry in BT. Also, nomograms can be useful for dose calculation quality assurance and they could be adapted to High Dose Rate (HDR). This work sets nomograms for LD...