Potential dose-conformity advantages with multi-source intensity-modulated brachytherapy (IMBT)

The possibilities for optimizing brachytherapy by including additional degrees of freedom in source design were investigated. This included examining optimised dose delivery with a brachytherapy source that can provide intensity-modulated dose delivery in angle about the source travel direction (to achieve intensity-modulated brachytherapy-IMBT). A prostate HDR case was selected as an example. An inverse planning algorithm was used to define how an asymmetric radiation source can be controlled in multiple source catheters to maximize tumour dose coverage and minimize urethral and rectal doses. Substantial improvements in conformity in terms of tumour coverage and urethral dose reduction could be achieved when conventional HDR source positioning was used with IMBT. With the objective definition used in the example however, rectal doses could not be improved over those delivered via conventional HDR. When source position was included as a variable in IMBT, significant conformity improvements result for all structures. IMBT would be a technically challenging form of therapy that would be strongly influenced by the type of sources that could be created for it. This study has shown however that there is a potential for improving dose conformity with such a therapy. Introduction of IMBT techniques would require conventional brachytherapy concepts to be radically modified.