title: A monte carlo comparison of three different media for contrast enhanced radiotherapy of the prostate.
abstract: Contrast-enhanced radiotherapy makes use of a kilovoltage X-ray beam, either from a diagnostic X-ray tube or modified megavoltage linear accelerator, in conjunction with a high-Z contrast medium deposited into the target volume to enhance the absorption of radiation. In this work, using the Monte Carlo code PENELOPE and the voxelized Zubal phantom to model a prostate radiotherapy treatment, a comparison between the physical absorbed dose distributions rendered by three different enhancing agents namely bismuth, gadolinium, and iodine is performed. It is assumed that there exists a concentration of 10 mg of enhancing agent per 1 g of tissue in the target volume while in the background a concentration of 1.5 mg per 1 g of tissue is present. The X-ray beam energy spectrum was obtained by means of Monte Carlo simulation of a tungsten target upon which a 220 keV mono-energetic electron pencil beam is made to impinge, and the resultant photon beam is heavily filtrated by 0.2 cm of copper. The treatment delivery is simulated as a 3608 arc collimated to conform to the target from every direction. Cumulative dose-volume histograms and isodose curves are presented for the target as well as five organs-at-risk, namely rectal wall, bladder, femoral heads, skin, and bone marrow. It is shown that under these conditions clinically acceptable treatment plans are obtained for all three contrast agents. A 72 Gy dose to 100% of the target volume results in maximum absorbed doses to the above mentioned organs-at-risk of 65, 56, 44, 32 and 65 Gy respectively when bismuth is used as the contrast agent, but the results obtained with gadolinium follow closely.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigacion y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politecnico Nacional Unidad Monterrey, Via del Conocimiento 201 Parque de Investigacion e Innovacion Tecnologica, Apodaca NL CP 66600 MEXICO. hgarnica@cinvestav.mx
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Garnica-Garza
mesh_terms: D003287:Contrast Media; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media