Sci-Sat AM(2): Brachy-03: Monte Carlo dosimetry for I-125 and Pd-103 eye plaque brachytherapy

A Monte Carlo study of dosimetry for eye plaque brachytherapy was performed. BrachyDose, an EGSnrc user-code which makes use of Yegin's multi-geometry package, was used to fully model Iodine-125 (model 6711) and Palladium-103 (model 200) brachytherapy seeds and the standardized plaques of the Collaborative Ocular Melanoma Study (COMS). Three-dimensional dose distributions in the eye region were obtained. In general, dose to water was scored, however the implications of replacing water with eye materials was explored. The effect of the gold alloy (Modulay) backing was investigated and the dose was found to be sensitive to the elemental composition of the backing. The presence of the silicon polymer (Silastic) seed carrier resulted in substantial dose decreases relative to water, particularly for Pd-103. For the Modulay backing and Silastic insert combination in a 20 mm plaque, the dose decrease relative to water is of the order of 12% for I-125 and 20% for Pd-103 at a distance of 1 cm from the central seed along the plaque's central axis. For the configurations of seeds used in COMS plaques, interseed attenuation is a small effect within the eye region. The introduction of an air interface results in a dose reduction in its vicinity which depends on the plaque's position within the eye and the source type. The dose distributions in the eye for the two different sources were compared and, for the same prescription dose, Pd-103 generally offers a lower dose to critical normal structures.