Radiation dose delivered to the prostate and nearby organs in every brachytherapy procedure should be carefully analyzed using post-implant CT or MRI and uniformly documented in every patient, according to a new guideline co-authored by Yan Yu, Ph.D., director of Medical Physics in the department of Radiation Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University.
The guideline was issued by a task group commissioned by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), and will be published in the November 2009 issue of Medical Physics.
With the widespread use of image-guided dosimetry, there is a need for developing a consensus methodology for dose prescription and reporting for prostate brachytherapy. The dosimetric parameters used for evaluating an implant are dependent on physician's delineation of the prostate, rectum, bladder and urethra on post-implant imaging such as CT. Many research groups have reported that such delineation can be quite variable.
With the intent of providing consistent and reproducible dosimetric information without increasing healthcare costs, the AAPM Task Group 137 issued new recommendations and guidelines on the timing, imaging techniques, dose planning criteria and dose evaluation parameters that should be followed in documenting each brachytherapy treatment.