Dosimetric evaluation of two treatment planning systems for high dose rate brachytherapy applications

Various treatment planning systems are used to design plans for the treatment of cervical cancer using high-dose-rate brachytherapy. The purpose of this study was to make a dosimetric comparison of the 2 treatment planning systems from Varian medical systems, namely ABACUS and BrachyVision. The dose distribution of Ir-192 source generated with a single dwell position was compared using ABACUS (version 3.1) and BrachyVision (version 6.5) planning systems. Ten patients with intracavitary applications were planned on both systems using orthogonal radiographs. Doses were calculated at the prescription points (point A, right and left) and reference points RU, LU, RM, LM, bladder, and rectum. For single dwell position, little difference was observed in the doses to points along the perpendicular bisector. The mean difference between ABACUS and BrachyVision for these points was 1.88%. The mean difference in the dose calculated toward the distal end of the cable by ABACUS and BrachyVision was 3.78%, whereas along the proximal end the difference was 19.82%. For the patient case there was approximately 2% difference between ABACUS and BrachyVision planning for dose to the prescription points. The dose difference for the reference points ranged from 0.4-1.5%. For bladder and rectum, the differences were 5.2% and 13.5%, respectively. The dose difference between the rectum points was statistically significant. There is considerable difference between the dose calculations performed by the 2 treatment planning systems. It is seen that these discrepancies are caused by the differences in the calculation methodology adopted by the 2 systems.