Validation of K-edge 125I brachytherapy enhancement with silver compounds

Brachytherapy with radioactive seeds implanted within the tumour volume has demonstrated good success rates in treating certain cancers. In an effort to improve the curative rates in cancer patients, ongoing research is being conducted to enhance the amount of radiation dose that is absorbed within the tumour volume while minimizing the dose absorbed by the surrounding normal tissue. One method for enhancing tumour dose absorption with 125I brachytherapy seeds is to increase the number of photoelectric atomic interactions within the tumour volume by introducing small quantities of a silver compound, taking advantage of the K-edge effect. Because low-energy electrons and Auger electrons are the primary sources of brachytherapy dose enhancement, acquiring accurate experimental measurements of absorbed dose increases is a major challenge. To circumvent this problem, an x ray fluorescence excitation spectroscopy dosimetry technique supplemented with clinically accepted dosimetry calculations was developed to estimate relative absorbed dose increases in a water phantom containing up to 7.5 mM of silver. Excellent agreement was observed between theoretically derived Monte Carlo dosimetric predictions and experimental measurements. These results successfully demonstrated that K-edge enhanced 125I brachytherapy is indeed possible with future development of a non-toxic silver chelate.