skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: SU-FF-T-390: In-Vivo Prostate Brachytherapy Absorbed Dose Measurements

Journal Article · · Med. Phys.
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1118/1.3181871· OSTI ID:1096927

Purpose: In-vivo prostate brachytherapy absorbed dosimetrydetector using scintillating fibers. Method and Materials: Five pairs of 85.5 {+-} 0.05 cm long blue shifted scintillating fibers (model BCF-10) with 1 mm{sup 2} cross sectional area were placed in a mixture of gelatin (368.6 {+-} 0.5 grams) and water (3.78 {+-} 0.025 liters) to measured the absorbed dose delivered by a 12 Ci {sup 192}Ir HDR source. The fibers were held by a 7 x 7 cm{sup 2} template grid and optically connected to a 16-channel multianode photomultiplier tube (Hamamatsu, model H6568). Each pair consisted of one fiber 4 mm shorter than the other one to extract the dose by the subtraction method. A dose atlas was used for radiation delivered to the phantom. The plans followed delivered 5 and 7 Gy to a point located 2.0 centimeters away from the central dwelling positions. A total of 32 data points were acquired in a plan to assess the linearity and reproducibility of the measurements.Results: Reproducibility of the data was found to be within 5% and the overall accuracy of the system estimated to be {+-}5.5%. The linearity of the data for all 7 measureddose values (ranging from 0.6 to 7 Gy), gives a slope of 312 counts/Gy with a 1.4% relative deviation. Conclusion: This work indicates the possibility of measuring in real-time the dose effectively delivered to a biological system during prostate brachytherapy treatments. The availability of commercially thin (150 {micro}m) scintillating fibers opens the capability of using such system during clinical treatments (by embedding the fibers within the catheters) with the advantage of performing real-time adjustment of the dose delivery.

Research Organization:
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), Newport News, VA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-06OR23177
OSTI ID:
1096927
Report Number(s):
JLAB-PHY-09-1139; DOE/OR/23177-2805
Journal Information:
Med. Phys., Vol. 36
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English