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In vivo dosimetry in brachytherapy
Author(s) -
Tanderup Kari,
Beddar Sam,
Andersen Claus E.,
Kertzscher Gustavo,
Cygler Joanna E.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.4810943
Subject(s) - dosimetry , brachytherapy , medical physics , nuclear medicine , medicine , radiation therapy , radiology
In vivo dosimetry (IVD) has been used in brachytherapy (BT) for decades with a number of different detectors and measurement technologies. However, IVD in BT has been subject to certain difficulties and complexities, in particular due to challenges of the high‐gradient BT dose distribution and the large range of dose and dose rate. Due to these challenges, the sensitivity and specificity toward error detection has been limited, and IVD has mainly been restricted to detection of gross errors. Given these factors, routine use of IVD is currently limited in many departments. Although the impact of potential errors may be detrimental since treatments are typically administered in large fractions and with high‐gradient‐dose‐distributions, BT is usually delivered without independent verification of the treatment delivery. This Vision 20/20 paper encourages improvements within BT safety by developments of IVD into an effective method of independent treatment verification.