Film dosimetry calibration method for pulsed-dose-rate brachytherapy with an 192Ir source

192Ir sources have been widely used in clinical brachytherapy. An important challenge is to perform dosimetric measurements close to the source despite the steep dose gradient. The common, inexpensive silver halide film is a classic two-dimensional integrator dosimeter and would be an attractive solution for these dose measurements. The main disadvantage of film dosimetry is the film response to the low-energy photon. Since the photon energy spectrum is known to vary with depth, the sensitometric curves are expected to be dependent on depth. The purpose of this study is to suggest a correction method for silver halide film dosimetry that overcomes the response changes at different depths. Sensitometric curves have been obtained at different depths with verification film near a 1 Ci 192Ir pulsed-dose-rate source. The depth dependence of the film response was observed and a correction function was established. The suitability of the method was tested through measurement of the radial dose profile and radial dose function. The results were compared to Monte Carlo-simulated values according to the TG43 formalism. Monte Carlo simulations were performed separately for the beta and gamma source emissions, using the EGS4 code system, including the low-energy photon and electron transport optimization procedures. The beta source emission simulation showed that the beta dose contribution could be neglected and therefore the film-depth dependence could not be attributed to this part of the source radioactivity. The gamma source emission simulations included photon-spectra collection at several depths. The results showed a depth-dependent softening of the photon spectrum that can explain the film-energy dependence.