Optimized source selection for intracavitary low dose rate brachytherapy.

A procedure has been developed for automating optimal selection of sources from an available inventory for the low dose rate brachytherapy, as a replacement for the conventional trial-and-error approach. The method of optimized constrained ratios was applied for clinical source selection for intracavitary Cs-137 implants using Varian BRACHYVISION software as initial interface. However, this method can be easily extended to another system with isodose scaling and shaping capabilities. Our procedure provides optimal source selection results independent of the user experience and in a short amount of time. This method also generates statistics on frequently requested ideal source strengths aiding in ordering of clinically relevant sources.