Preventing Hot Spots in High Dose-Rate Brachytherapy

• High dose-rate brachytherapy is a method of radiation cancer treatment, where the radiation source is placed inside the body. The recommended way to evaluate dose plans is based on dosimetric indices which are aggregate measures of the received dose. Insufficient spatial distribution of the dose may however result in hot spots, which are contiguous volumes in the tumour that receive a dose that is much too high. We use mathematical optimization to adjust a dose plan that is acceptable with respect to dosimetric indices to also take spatial distribution of the dose into account. This results in large-scale nonlinear mixed-binary models that are solved using nonlinear approximations. We show that there are substantial degrees of freedom in the dose planning even though the levels of dosimetric indices are maintained, and that it is possible to improve a dose plan with respect to its spatial properties.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Radiologi och bildbehandling (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging (hsv//eng)

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