Standardizing dose prescriptions: An ASTRO white paper.

This white paper recommends the standardization (content and presentation order) of several "key components" of the radiation therapy prescription to facilitate accurate communication between radiation therapy care providers. The rationale, other similar efforts, and detailed considerations are described. In brief, the Task Force recommends that the prescription's "elements" include: treatment site, method of delivery, dose per fraction, total number of fractions, total dose (eg, right breast, tangent photons, 267 cGy * 16 = 4272 cGy).

Interstitial Brachytherapy for the Treatment of Locally Recurrent Anorectal Cancer.

Background: Local tumor control (LC), overall survival (OS), symptom palliation, and late toxicity for patients with locally recurrent anorectal cancer treated with a computed tomography (CT)-guided interstitial brachytherapy implant were examined.

Methods: The medical records of 20 consecutive patients who had received interstitial brachytherapy for locally recurrent anorectal cancer from 2000 through 2012 were reviewed. Seventeen patients (85 %) had rectal cancer and three had anal cancer [median follow-up time for living patients, 23 months (range 13-132)].

Impact of heterogeneity-based dose calculation using a deterministic grid-based Boltzmann equation solver for intracavitary brachytherapy.

Purpose: To investigate the dosimetric impact of the heterogeneity dose calculation Acuros (Transpire Inc., Gig Harbor, WA), a grid-based Boltzmann equation solver (GBBS), for brachytherapy in a cohort of cervical cancer patients.

Methods And Materials: The impact of heterogeneities was retrospectively assessed in treatment plans for 26 patients who had previously received (192)Ir intracavitary brachytherapy for cervical cancer with computed tomography (CT)/magnetic resonance-compatible tandems and unshielded colpostats.

Retrospective dosimetric comparison of low-dose-rate and pulsed-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy using a tandem and mini-ovoids.

The purpose of this study was to compare the dose distribution of Iridium-192 ((192)Ir) pulsed-dose-rate (PDR) brachytherapy to that of Cesium-137 ((137)Cs) low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy around mini-ovoids and an intrauterine tandem. Ten patient treatment plans were selected from our clinical database, all of which used mini-ovoids and an intrauterine tandem. A commercial treatment planning system using AAPM TG43 formalism was used to calculate the dose in water for both the (137)Cs and (192)Ir sources.

Dosimetric evaluation of the Fletcher-Williamson ovoid for pulsed-dose-rate brachytherapy: a Monte Carlo study.

We used radiochromic film dosimetry to validate a Monte Carlo (MC) model of a 192Ir pulsed-dose-rate (PDR) source inside a Fletcher-Williamson ovoid. MD-55-2 radiochromic film was placed in a high-impact polystyrene phantom in a plane parallel to and displaced 2.0 cm medially from the long axis of the ovoid.