Active and passive dosimetry for beta-emitting radiopharmaceutical therapy agents in a custom SPECT/CT compatible phantom

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This work introduces a novel approach to performing active and passive dosimetry for beta-emitting radionuclides in solution using common dosimeters. The measurements are compared to absorbed dose to water (Dw) estimates from Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. We present a method for obtaining absorbed dose to water, measured with dosimeters, from beta-emitting radiopharmaceutical agents using a custom SPECT/CT compatible phantom for validation of Monte Carlo based absorbed dose to water estimates.
APPROACH: A cylindrical, acrylic SPECT/CT compatible phantom capable of housing an IBA EFD diode, IBA RAZOR diode, Exradin A20-375 parallel plate ion chamber, unlaminated EBT3 film, and thin TLD100 microcubes was constructed for the purpose of measuring absorbed dose to water from solutions of common beta-emitting radiopharmaceutical therapy agents. The phantom is equipped with removable detector inserts that allow for multiple configurations and is designed to be used for validation of image-based absorbed dose estimates with detector measurements. Two experiments with 131I and one experiment with 177Lu were conducted over extended measurement intervals with starting activities of approximately 150 - 350 MBq. Measurement data was compared to Monte Carlo simulations using the egs_chamber user code in EGSnrc 2019.
MAIN RESULTS: Agreement within k = 1 uncertainty between measured and MC predicted Dw was observed for all dosimeters, except the IBA RAZOR diode and the A20-375 ion chamber during the second 131I experiment. Despite the agreement, the measured values generally lower than predicted values by 5 – 15 %. The uncertainties at k=1 remain large (5 – 30 % depending on the dosimeter) relative to other forms of radiation therapy.
SIGNIFICANCE: Despite high uncertainties, the overall agreement between measured and simulated absorbed doses is promising for the use of dosimeter-based RPT measurements in the validation of MC predicted Dw.