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Development and implementation of a remote audit tool for high dose rate (HDR) Ir-192 brachytherapy using optically stimulated luminescence dosimetry.

ABSTRACT: The aim of this work was to create a mailable phantom with measurement accuracy suitable for Radiological Physics Center (RPC) audits of high dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy sources at institutions participating in National Cancer Institute-funded cooperative clinical trials. Optically stimulated luminescence dosimeters (OSLDs) were chosen as the dosimeter to be used with the phantom.The authors designed and built an 8 × 8 × 10 cm(3) prototype phantom that had two slots capable of holding Al2O3:C OSLDs (nanoDots; Landauer, Glenwood, IL) and a single channel capable of accepting all (192)Ir HDR brachytherapy sources in current clinical use in the United States. The authors irradiated the phantom with Nucletron and Varian (192)Ir HDR sources in order to determine correction factors for linearity with dose and the combined effects of irradiation energy and phantom characteristics. The phantom was then sent to eight institutions which volunteered to perform trial remote audits.The linearity correction factor was kL = (-9.43 × 10(-5) × dose) + 1.009, where dose is in cGy, which differed from that determined by the RPC for the same batch of dosimeters using (60)Co irradiation. Separate block correction factors were determined for current versions of both Nucletron and Varian (192)Ir HDR sources and these vendor-specific correction factors differed by almost 2.6%. For the Nucletron source, the correction factor was 1.026 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.023-1.028], and for the Varian source, it was 1.000 (95% CI = 0.995-1.005). Variations in lateral source positioning up to 0.8 mm and distal∕proximal source positioning up to 10 mm had minimal effect on dose measurement accuracy. The overall dose measurement uncertainty of the system was estimated to be 2.4% and 2.5% for the Nucletron and Varian sources, respectively (95% CI). This uncertainty was sufficient to establish a ± 5% acceptance criterion for source strength audits under a formal RPC audit program. Trial audits of four Nucletron sources and four Varian sources revealed an average RPC-to-institution dose ratio of 1.000 (standard deviation = 0.011).The authors have created an OSLD-based (192)Ir HDR brachytherapy source remote audit tool which offers sufficient dose measurement accuracy to allow the RPC to establish a remote audit program with a ± 5% acceptance criterion. The feasibility of the system has been demonstrated with eight trial audits to date.

SUBMITTER: Casey KE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3820626 | biostudies-other | 2013 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:This work presents a comprehensive commissioning and workflow development process of a real-time, ultrasound (US) image-guided treatment planning system (TPS), a stepper and a US unit. To adequately benchmark the system, commissioning tasks were separated into (1) US imaging, (2) stepper mechanical, and (3) treatment planning aspects. Quality assurance US imaging measurements were performed following the AAPM TG-128 and GEC-ESTRO recommendations and consisted of benchmarking the spatial resolution, accuracy, and low-contrast detectability. Mechanical tests were first used to benchmark the electronic encoders within the stepper and were later expanded to evaluate the needle free length calculation accuracy. Needle reconstruction accuracy was rigorously evaluated at the treatment planning level. The calibration length of each probe was redundantly checked between the calculated and measured needle free length, which was found to be within 1 mm for a variety of scenarios. Needle placement relative to a reference fiducial and coincidence of imaging coordinate origins were verified to within 1 mm in both sagittal and transverse imaging planes. The source strength was also calibrated within the interstitial needle and was found to be 1.14% lower than when measured in a plastic needle. Dose calculations in the TPS and secondary dose calculation software were benchmarked against manual TG-43 calculations. Calculations among the three calculation methods agreed within 1% for all calculated points. Source positioning and dummy coincidence was tested following the recommendations of the TG-40 report. Finally, the development of the clinical workflow, checklists, and planning objectives are discussed and included within this report. The commissioning of real-time, US-guided HDR prostate systems requires careful consideration among several facets including the image quality, dosimetric, and mechanical accuracy. The TPS relies on each of these components to develop and administer a treatment plan, and as such, should be carefully examined.

Project description:The measurement of dose distributions in clinical brachytherapy, for the purpose of quality control, commissioning or dosimetric audit, is challenging and requires development. Radiochromic film dosimetry with a commercial flatbed scanner may be suitable, but careful methodologies are required to control various sources of uncertainty. Triple-channel dosimetry has recently been utilized in external beam radiotherapy to improve the accuracy of film dosimetry, but its use in brachytherapy, with characteristic high maximum doses, steep dose gradients, and small scales, has been less well researched. We investigate the use of advanced film dosimetry techniques for brachytherapy dosimetry, evaluating uncertainties and assessing the mitigation afforded by triple-channel dosimetry. We present results on postirradiation film darkening, lateral scanner effect, film surface perturbation,film active layer thickness, film curling, and examples of the measurement of clinical brachytherapy dose distributions. The lateral scanner effect in brachytherapy film dosimetry can be very significant, up to 23% dose increase at 14 Gy, at ± 9 cm lateral from the scanner axis for simple single-channel dosimetry. Triple-channel dosimetry mitigates the effect, but still limits the useable width of a typical scanner to less than 8 cm at high dose levels to give dose uncertainty to within 1%. Triple-channel dosimetry separates dose and dose-independent signal components, and effectively removes disturbances caused by film thickness variation and surface perturbations in the examples considered in this work. The use of reference dose films scanned simultaneously with brachytherapy test films is recommended to account for scanner variations from calibration conditions. Postirradiation darkening, which is a continual logarithmic function with time, must be taken into account between the reference and test films. Finally, films must be flat when scanned to avoid the Callier-like effects and to provide reliable dosimetric results. We have demonstrated that radiochromic film dosimetry with GAFCHROMIC EBT3 film and a commercial flatbed scanner is a viable method for brachytherapy dose distribution measurement, and uncertainties may be reduced with triple-channel dosimetry and specific film scan and evaluation methodologies.

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Development and implementation of a remote audit tool for high dose rate (HDR) Ir-192 brachytherapy using optically stimulated luminescence dosimetry.

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