Isolating the impact of tissue heterogeneities in high dose rate brachytherapy treatment of the breast.

ABSTRACT:

Background and purpose

Clinical brachytherapy treatment planning is performed assuming the patient is composed entirely of water and infinite in size. In this work, the effects of this assumption on calculated dose were investigated by comparing dose to water in water (D_w,w) in an unbound phantom mimicking TG-43 conditions, and dose to medium in medium (D_m,m) for breast cancer patients treated with high dose rate brachytherapy.

Materials and methods

Treatment plans for 123 breast cancer patients were recalculated with a Monte Carlo-based treatment planning software. The dwell times and dwell positions were imported from the clinical treatment planning system. The dose was computed and reported as D_w,w and D_m,m. Dose-volume histogra

SUBMITTER: Faucher J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11910349 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature