Intra-operative quality assurance and dosimetry optimization in prostate brachytherapy critically depends on the ability of discerning the locations of implanted seeds. Various methods exist for seed matching and reconstruction from multiple segmented C-arm images. Unfortunately, using three or more images makes the problem NP-hard, i.e. no polynomial-time algorithm can provably compute the com...

We prospectively assessed patients’ erectile function (EF) using the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) and a global assessment questionnaire (GAQ) following permanent Ibrachytherapy for localized prostate cancer. Of 378 treated patients, 220 had a minimal 2-y follow-up and 131/220 were sexually active prior to brachytherapy, with an EF domain score of Z11 (study group). Patients w...

No prospective dose escalation study for prostate brachytherapy (PB) with permanent implants has been reported. In this work, we have performed a dosimetric and biological analysis to explore the implications of dose escalation in PB using 125I and 103Pd implants. The concept of equivalent uniform dose (EUD), proposed originally for external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT), is applied to low dose rate...

BACKGROUND To determine prostate volume (Pvol) changes at 3 different time points during the course of I¹²⁵ permanent seed brachytherapy (PB). To assess the impact of these changes on acute urinary retention (AUR) and dosimetric outcome. METHODS We analyzed 149 hormone-naïve patients. Measurements of the prostate volume were done using three-dimensional transrectal ultrasound (3D-TRUS) in the...

PURPOSE To develop a new biological equivalent dose (BED) formulism that includes repair, repopulation and resensitization (redistribution and reoxygenation), and can be used to calculate prescribed dose for permanent implant with Cs-131. METHODS Because of lack of sufficient clinical data, the prescribed dose with new isotopes is usually calculated based on BED compared with other isotopes t...

Purpose The aim of this study was to compare the implant quality between intraoperatively built custom-linked seeds (IBCL) and loose seeds (LS) retrospectively. Material and methods This study included 74 prostate cancer patients who were treated with permanent prostate brachytherapy (PPB) using IBCL (n = 37) or LS (n = 37) between July 2014 and June 2016. Dose-volume histogram (DVH) paramete...

BACKGROUND This paper presents a novel alternative for the treatment of lung cancer. The method consists of accessing the lung through small incisions in a minimally invasive manner in order to insert radioactive seeds directly into the lung using a robotic surgical system. METHODS An experimental test-bed to evaluate the feasibility of this approach has been developed. It consists of two sur...