title: A Comparison of Skin Dose Delivered with MammoSite and Multicatheter Breast Brachytherapy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Accelerated partial breast irradiation via interstitial balloon brachytherapy is a fast and effective treatment method for certain early stage breast cancers however skin, chest wall and Lung doses are correlated with toxicity in patients treated with breast brachytherapy.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the percentage of the dose received by critical organ (skin), thermoluminescence detector was used in MammoSite brachytherpy and the ability to control skin dose between MammoSite and MultiCatheter brachytherapy was compared with each other.
  
  
  METHODS
  Dosimetry is carried out using a female-equivalent mathematical chest phantom and Ir-192 source for brachytherapy application.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our initial results has shown good agreement with surface doses between those calculated from the treatment planning results and those measured by the thermoluminescence detector. The mean skin dose for the experimental dosimetry in MammoSite was 2.3 Gy (56.76% of prescription dose).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results show that the MultiCatheter method is associated with significantly lower mean skin and chest wall dose than is the MammoSite. The MultiCatheter technique is quite flexible and can be applied to any size of breast or lumpectomy cavity, But in MammoSite technique, verification of balloon symmetry, balloon/cavity conformance and overlying skin thickness is essential to assure target coverage and toxicity avoidance.
authors.affiliation: Master Student, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oshaghi
authors.affiliation: Associate, Agricultural, Medical & Industrial Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, Karaj, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sadeghi
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor of Medical Physics, Department of Medical physics, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Sr
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mahdavi
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor of Medical Physics, Department of Medical physics, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shirazi
keywords: Brachytherapy; MammoSite; MultiCatheter; Skin Dose; Thermoluminescence detector; Treatment planning system