Radiation Protection Dosimetry Advance Access originally published online on March 24, 2006
Radiation Protection Dosimetry 2006 120(1-4):171-175; doi:10.1093/rpd/nci528
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
EPR/alanine dosimetry in LDR brachytherapya feasibility study
1 Department of Physics and Biophysics, Medical University of Gdansk, Debinki 1, 80-211 Gdansk, Poland
2 Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy, Medical University of Gdansk, Debinki 1, 80-211 Gdansk, Poland
* Corresponding author: kschult{at}amg.gda.pl
In this study, we present the results of in vivo dosimetry, using electron paramagnetic resonance in L-alanine, performed on 13 patients treated for gynaecological cancers. The doses from 137Cs (12 samples) and 192Ir (one sample) brachytherapy sources were determined inside vagina. The detectors had a form of small cellulose capsules tightly filled with crystalline alanine. The positions of the detectors were reconstructed from two orthogonal radiographs. The planned doses were calculated with a computer planning system (PLATO, Nucletron). The relative deviations between planned and measured doses ranged from 23 to +14%. The mean deviation from the prescribed dose was relatively low (5%) with SD of 10%. The main sources of differences between the measured and calculated doses were attributed to uncertainty in the determination of the detector position inside the patient's body and to uncontrolled changes in the detector position during the treatment.