Analysis of multicatheter interstitial brachytherapy: Accelerated partial breast irradiation in a retrospective cohort of early-stage breast cancer patients.

Purpose: To determine cardiac dose received by patients treated with high dose rate interstitial brachytherapy. Patients with early-stage, node negative breast cancer can be treated using multi-catheter interstitial brachytherapy accelerated partial breast irradiation (MIB-APBI), with the benefit of reduced treatment volumes and favorable toxicity.

Methods And Materials: We conducted a retrospective review of left-sided breast cancer patients treated using MIB-APBI at our institution since 2014.

Electromagnetic (EM) catheter path tracking in ultrasound-guided brachytherapy of the breast.

Purpose: To evaluate a novel navigation system for breast brachytherapy, based on ultrasound (US)-guided catheter needle implantations followed by electromagnetic (EM) tracking of catheter paths.

Methods: Breast phantoms were produced, containing US-visible tumors. Ultrasound was used to localize the tumor pose and volume within the phantom, followed by planning an optimal catheter pattern through the tumor using navigation software.

Cone-beam optical computed tomography for gel dosimetry II: imaging protocols.

This work develops imaging protocols for improved dose readout of a Fricke-xylenol orange-gelatin (FXG) gel-filled 1 L polyethylene terephthalate (PETE) jar dosimeter using a commercial Vista(TM) cone-beam optical computed tomography (CT) scanner from Modus Medical Devices Inc. (London, ON, Canada). To ensure good management of light source-detector stability, it was determined that (a) a minimum of 2 h warm-up time is necessary prior to dosimeter scanning, (b) the light source should be kept on until the completion of the last data scan except for the minimum amount of time required to acquire dark field images, and (c) the optional Vista software projection image normalization routine should be used in image reconstruction.

Cone beam optical computed tomography for gel dosimetry I: scanner characterization.

The ongoing development of easily accessible, fast optical readout tools promises to remove one of the barriers to acceptance of gel dosimetry as a viable tool in cancer clinics. This paper describes the characterization of a number of basic properties of the Vista cone beam CCD-based optical scanner, which can obtain high resolution reconstructed data in less than 20 min total imaging and reconstruction time. The suitability of a filtered back projection cone beam reconstruction algorithm is established for optically absorbing dosimeters using this scanner configuration.