The evolution of brachytherapy treatment planning

Rivard, Mark J.; Venselaar, J.L.M.; Beaulieu, Luc

doi:10.1118/1.3125136

Cited by 169 publications

(152 citation statements)

References 143 publications

(146 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

141

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The approach neglects effects of heterogeneities such as variations in tissue composition and density. Currently BT is developing fast towards introduction of sophisticated algorithms for imaged based dose calculation (Rivard et al 2009). These developments raise urgent demands for improved knowledge of atomic compositions of tissues in the individual patient (Beaulieu et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The potential of dual-energy computed tomography for quantitative decomposition of soft tissues to water, protein and lipid in brachytherapy

2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Dosimetric accuracy of radiation treatment planning in brachytherapy depends on knowledge of tissue composition. It has been speculated that soft tissues can be decomposed to water, lipid and protein. The aim of our work is to evaluate the accuracy of such tissue decomposition. Selected abdominal soft tissues, whose average elemental compositions were taken from literature, were decomposed using dual energy computed tomography to water, lipid, and protein via the three-material decomposition method. The quality of the decomposition was assessed using relative differences between the (i) mass energy absorption and (ii) mass energy attenuation coefficients of the analyzed and approximated tissues. It was found that the relative differences were less than 2% for photon energies larger than 10 keV. The differences were notably smaller than the ones for water as the transport and dose scoring medium. The choice of the water, protein and lipid triplet resulted in negative elemental mass fractions for some analyzed tissues. As negative elemental mass fractions cannot be used in general purpose particle transport computer codes using the Monte Carlo method, other triplets should be used for the decomposition. These triplets may further improve the accuracy of the approximation as the differences were mainly caused by the lack of high-Z materials in the water, protein and lipid triplet.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The potential of dual-energy computed tomography for quantitative decomposition of soft tissues to water, protein and lipid in brachytherapy

2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…[31][32][33][34][35][36][37] Shortcomings of the TG-43 dose calculation protocol 27 are targeted by developments of model-based dose calculation methods, which is in contrast to the TG-43 account for tissue heterogeneities and individualized patient anatomy. 38,39 Although dosimetric uncertainties in BT have been well described, there has been a limited overview of how the impact of clinical uncertainties related to, for example, contouring, treatment planning and organ movements affect the treatment outcome. However, recently, a number of investigations have been published, which improve the possibilities to describe BT uncertainty budgets that encompass the entire treatment workflow from source calibration to treatment delivery.…”

Section: Treatment Errors In Btmentioning

confidence: 99%

In vivodosimetry: trends and prospects for brachytherapy

Kertzscher¹,

Rosenfeld²,

Beddar³

et al. 2014

BJR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The error types during brachytherapy (BT) treatments and their occurrence rates are not well known. The limited knowledge is partly attributed to the lack of independent verification systems of the treatment progression in the clinical workflow routine. Within the field of in vivo dosimetry (IVD), it is established that real-time IVD can provide efficient error detection and treatment verification. However, it is also recognized that widespread implementations are hampered by the lack of available high-accuracy IVD systems that are straightforward for the clinical staff to use. This article highlights the capabilities of the state-of-the-art IVD technology in the context of error detection and quality assurance (QA) and discusses related prospects of the latest developments within the field. The article emphasizes the main challenges responsible for the limited practice of IVD and provides descriptions on how they can be overcome. Finally, the article suggests a framework for collaborations between BT clinics that implemented IVD on a routine basis and postulates that such collaborations could improve BT QA measures and the knowledge about BT error types and their occurrence rates.

show abstract

“…LDR plans were created in V V M Systems, Inc., Palo Alto, CA) and HDR plans were created in O P 1.3 (Elekta AB). Treatment planning algorithms using the TG-43 formalism were used [7]. The prostate volumes used in this study were 22.7, 32.8 and 34.5cm 3 ; although in practice a wider range of prostate volumes would be considered appropriate for HDR brachytherapy.…”

Section: Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%