Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Derivation And Testing Of Three-Dimensional Line Equations That Predict The Location Of Brachytherapy Sources, Rhett Ellis Lindsey

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In High Dose Rate brachytherapy, a catheter is placed inside the body and a radioactive source is allowed to dwell at specific positions to treat a tumor. In normal usage, anatomical images acquired before the treatment are used to plan dwell positions, and then the plan is executed without further verifying source locations during treatment. However, slight errors in catheter positioning and shifts in internal anatomy cause variations in source position. In this study, a general method for determining dwell positions during treatment is evaluated. For this method, the treatment source exposes the tumor to radiation and creates an image …