In vivo dosimetry: trends and prospects for brachytherapy

The error types during brachytherapy (BT) treatments and their occurrence rates are not well known. The limited knowledge is partly attributed to the lack of independent verification systems of the treatment progression in the clinical workflow routine. Within the field of in vivo dosimetry (IVD), i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of radiology 2014-09, Vol.87 (1041), p.20140206-20140206
Main Authors: Kertzscher, G, Rosenfeld, A, Beddar, S, Tanderup, K, Cygler, J E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brachytherapy - methods
Brachytherapy - standards
Brachytherapy - trends
Brachytherapy dosimetry special feature: Review article
Humans
Quality Assurance, Health Care
Radiometry - standards
Radiotherapy and Oncology
Radiotherapy Dosage
Semiconductors
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Summary:The error types during brachytherapy (BT) treatments and their occurrence rates are not well known. The limited knowledge is partly attributed to the lack of independent verification systems of the treatment progression in the clinical workflow routine. Within the field of in vivo dosimetry (IVD), it is established that real-time IVD can provide efficient error detection and treatment verification. However, it is also recognized that widespread implementations are hampered by the lack of available high-accuracy IVD systems that are straightforward for the clinical staff to use. This article highlights the capabilities of the state-of-the-art IVD technology in the context of error detection and quality assurance (QA) and discusses related prospects of the latest developments within the field. The article emphasizes the main challenges responsible for the limited practice of IVD and provides descriptions on how they can be overcome. Finally, the article suggests a framework for collaborations between BT clinics that implemented IVD on a routine basis and postulates that such collaborations could improve BT QA measures and the knowledge about BT error types and their occurrence rates.
ISSN:0007-1285
1748-880X
DOI:10.1259/bjr.20140206