Update of the CLRP Monte Carlo TG‐43 parameter database for high‐energy brachytherapy sources

• Published in: Medical physics (Lancaster) Vol. 50; no. 3; pp. 1928 - 1941
• Main Authors: Safigholi, Habib, Chamberland, Marc J. P., Taylor, Randle E. P., Martinov, Martin P., Rogers, D. W. O., Thomson, Rowan M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-03-2023
• Subjects: Brachytherapy - methods; CLRP; EGSnrc; high‐energy brachytherapy; Monte Carlo egs_brachy; Monte Carlo Method; Physics; Radiometry - methods; Radiotherapy Dosage; Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted - methods; TG‐43 database; EGSnrc; CLRP; TG-43 database; Monte Carlo egs_brachy; high-energy brachytherapy
• ISSN: 0094-2405; 2473-4209
• DOI: 10.1002/mp.16176

Purpose
To update and extend version 2 of the Carleton Laboratory for Radiotherapy Physics (CLRP) TG‐43 dosimetry database (CLRP_TG43v2) for high‐energy (HE, ≥50 keV) brachytherapy sources (1 169Yb, 23 192Ir, 5 137Cs, and 4 60Co) using egs_brachy, an open‐source EGSnrc application. A comprehensive dataset of TG‐43 parameters is compiled, including detailed source descriptions, dose‐rate constants, radial dose functions, 1D and 2D anisotropy functions, along‐away dose‐rate tables, Primary and Scatter Separated (PSS) dose tables, and mean photon energies escaping each source. The database also documents the source models which are freely distributed with egs_brachy.
Acquisition and Validation Methods
Datasets are calculated after a recoding of the source geometries using the egs++ geometry package and its egs_brachy extensions. Air kerma per history is calculated in a 10×10×$\,{\times}\, 10\,{\times}\,$0.05 cm3 voxel located 100 cm from the source along the transverse axis and then corrected for the lateral and thickness dimensions of the scoring voxel to give the air kerma on the central axis at a point 100 cm from the source's mid‐point. Full‐scatter water phantoms with varying voxel resolutions in cylindrical coordinates are used for dose calculations. Most data (except for 60Co) are based on the assumption of charged particle equilibrium and ignore the potentially large effects of electron transport very close to the source and dose from initial beta particles. These effects are evaluated for four representative sources. For validation, data are compared to those from CLRP_TG43v1 and published data.
Data Format and Access
Data are available at https://physics.carleton.ca/clrp/egs_brachy/seed_database_v2
or http://doi.org/10.22215/clrp/tg43v2
including in Excel (.xlsx) spreadsheets, and are presented graphically in comparisons to previously published data for each source.
Potential Applications
The CLRP_TG43v2 database has applications in research, dosimetry, and brachytherapy planning. This comprehensive update provides the medical physics community with more precise and in some cases more accurate Monte Carlo (MC) TG‐43 dose calculation parameters, as well as fully benchmarked and described source models which are distributed with egs_brachy.