PURPOSE The aim of this work was to evaluate the variation of dose in organs at risk (OARs) in fractionated high dose rate intracavitary brachytherapy (HDR-BT) for cervical cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS A prospective study was carried out on 20 cervical cancer patients treated with fractionated (HDR-BT). International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurement (ICRU) bladder (bICRU) and rec...

A method is presented for checking the treatment time calculation for high dose rate (HDR) vaginal cylinder treatments. The method represents an independent check of the HDR planning system and can take into account nonuniform isodose line coverage around the cylinder. Only the air kerma strength of the source and information that is available from the written directive are required. The maximu...

High dose rate brachytherapy (HDR) using 192Ir sources is well accepted as an important treatment option and thus requires an accurate dosimetry standard. However, a dosimetry standard for the direct measurement of the absolute dose to water for this particular source type is currently not available. An improved standard for the absorbed dose to water based on Fricke dosimetry of HDR 192Ir brac...

After breast conserving surgery, early stage breast cancer patients are currently treated with a wide range of radiation techniques including whole breast irradiation (WBI), accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) using high-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy, or 3D-conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT). This study compares the mean heart's doses for a left breast irradiated with different breast te...

MRI is often used in tumor localization for radiotherapy treatment planning, with gadolinium (Gd)-containing materials often introduced as a contrast agent. Motexafin gadolinium is a novel radiosensitizer currently being studied in clinical trials. The nanoparticle technologies can target tumors with high concentration of high-Z materials. This Monte Carlo study is the first detailed quantitati...

PURPOSE Severe urinary adverse events (UAEs) include surgical treatment of urethral stricture, urinary incontinence, and radiation cystitis. We compared the incidence of grade 3 UAEs, according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, after low-dose-rate (LDR) and high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy, as well as after LDR plus external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) and HDR plus EBRT...

Introduction: The dwell time and transit time components contribute to the overall delivered dose to patients in high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatments. The transit time results from source entry and exit as well as source movements between dwell positions. It depends on various parameters such as the source speed profile, source indexer distance to dwell position, and ...

PURPOSE To determine predictors of distant metastases (DM) in prostate cancer patients treated with high dose rate brachytherapy boost (HDR-B) and external beam radiation therapy (EBRT). MATERIAL AND METHODS From 1991 to 2002, 768 men with localized prostate cancer were treated with HDR-B and EBRT. The mean EBRT dose was 37.5 Gy (range: 30.6-45 Gy), and the HDR-B was 22 or 24 Gy delivered in ...