Comparison of three LDR prostate brachytherapy treatment plans

Abstract

In a previous work, the prostate brachytherapy was studied using the radionuclide cesium-131. Here in this study, we aim to perform a comparison between the three famous treatment plans of doing prostate brachytherapy. The low-dose-rate (LDR) category is being considered with the three radionuclides iodine-125, cesium-131 and palladium-103. The internal radiation doses delivered during the brachytherapy process are estimated for a number of organs of the body. The estimations are made by using some MCNP5 (Monte Carlo N-Particle version 5) simulation codes that utilize the ORNL-MIRD (Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Medical Internal Radiation Dose) phantom of human-body. To assess how much the other healthy organs could be affected by the brachytherapy process, the rates of radiation doses are estimated not only for the target organ, namely the prostate, but for some other organs in the near area as well. The sources of radiation (seeds) are assumed point sources. Different numbers of seeds with different radioactivities are used to cover the entire clinical ranges. It is found that the calculated dose rates and periods of delivering the prescribed doses are within the expectations.