A dose verification tool for high-dose-rate interstitial brachytherapy treatment planning in accelerated partial...

To develop a dose verification tool for high-dose-rate interstitial brachytherapy treatment planning in accelerated partial breast irradiation.

We have developed a software tool for interstitial brachytherapy treatment planning assessment. The software contains a database of seven (192)Ir source models and is able to estimate the dose distribution using the Task Group 43 and the Sievert integral algorithms. Dose-volume histogram analysis and dose quality assurance (QA) criteria including conformity (COnformal INdex [COIN] and conformation number [CN]), homogeneity (homogeneity index [HI]) parameters were implemented in the software to evaluate and to compare between the doses estimated by the two algorithms and a dose extracted from an external treatment planning system (TPS).

The tool was evaluated and validated on four clinical cases treated by high-dose-rate interstitial brachytherapy. The doses provided by the Task Group 43 and the Sievert integral algorithms were evaluated by establishing the dose-volume histogram analysis and then by calculating the QA criteria. The algorithms were validated by comparing the dose at different anatomic points with their corresponding dose points provided from TPS. The differences were considered in good agreement (within 5%).

Pretreatment dose verification is an important step in the QA of brachytherapy accelerated partial breast irradiation. A simple, fast, and accurate method of dose verification is therefore needed. The software proposed in this study could fulfill these requirements. In addition, it is freely available for using by anyone wishing to do a QA on any TPS.