Premium
SU‐E‐T‐546: Use of Implant Volume for Quality Assurance of Low Dose Rate Brachytherapy Treatment Plans
Author(s) -
Wilkinson D,
Kolar M
Publication year - 2014
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 - 10.1118/1.4888880
Subject(s) - brachytherapy , quality assurance , radiation treatment planning , nuclear medicine , dose rate , prostate brachytherapy , medicine , monitor unit , implant , dosimetry , consistency (knowledge bases) , prostate cancer , radiation therapy , medical physics , mathematics , radiology , cancer , surgery , external quality assessment , geometry , pathology
Purpose: To analyze the application of volume implant (V100) data as a method for a global check of low dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy plans. Methods: Treatment plans for 335 consecutive patients undergoing permanent seed implants for prostate cancer and for 113 patients treated with plaque therapy for ocular melanoma were analyzed. Plaques used were 54 COMS (10 to 20 mm, notched and regular) and 59 Eye Physics EP917s with variable loading. Plots of treatment time x implanted activity per unit dose versus v100 ^.667 were made. V100 values were obtained using dose volume histograms calculated by the treatment planning systems (Variseed 8.02 and Plaque Simulator 5.4). Four different physicists were involved in planning the prostate seed cases; two physicists for the eye plaques. Results: Since the time and dose for the prostate cases did not vary, a plot of implanted activity vs V100 ^.667 was made. A linear fit with no intercept had an r 2 = 0.978; more than 94% of the actual activities fell within 5% of the activities calculated from the linear fit. The greatest deviations were in cases where the implant volumes were large (> 100 cc). Both COMS and EP917 plaque linear fits were good (r 2 = .967 and .957); the largest deviations were seen for large volumes. Conclusions: The method outlined here is effective for checking planning consistency and quality assurance of two types of LDR brachytherapy treatment plans (temporary and permanent). A spreadsheet for the calculations enables a quick check of the plan in situations were time is short (e.g. OR‐based prostate planning).