Study of the dosimetric differences between Ir and Co sources of high dose rate brachytherapy for breast interstitial implant

AimThe study intends to compare 192Ir source against the 60Co source for interstitial breast metal implant in high dose rate brachytherapy.BackgroundFew studies have been reported to compare 60Co and 192Ir on HDR brachytherapy in gynaecology and prostate cancer and very few with reference to breast cancer.Materials and methodsTwenty patients who had undergone interstitial template guided breast implant were treated in HDR 192Ir brachytherapy unit. Plans were generated substituting 60Co source without changing the dwell positions and optimization. Cumulative dose volume histograms were compared.ResultsThe reference isodose line enclosing CTV (CTVref) and the 2.34% difference seen in the volume enclosed by the reference isodose line (Vref) between the two isotopes show small but statistically significant difference (p[[ce:hsp sp="0.25"/]