Brachytherapy dosimeter with silicon photomultipliers

Abstract

In-vivo and in-situ measurement of the radiation dose administered during brachytherapy faces several technical challenges, requiring a very compact, tissue-equivalent, linear and highly sensitive dosimeter, particularly in low-dose rate brachytherapy procedures, which use radioactive seeds with low energy and low dose deposition rate. In this work we present a scintillating optical fiber dosimeter composed of a flexible sensitive probe and a dedicated electronic readout system based on silicon photomultiplier photodetection, capable of operating both in pulse and current modes. The performance of the scintillating fiber optic dosimeter was evaluated in low energy regimes, using an X-ray tube operating at voltages of 40–50kV and currents below 1mA, to assess minimum dose response of the scintillating fiber. The dosimeter shows a linear response with dose and is capable of detecting mGy dose variations like an ionization chamber. Besides fulfilling all the requirements for a dosimeter in brachytherapy, the high sensitivity of this device makes it a suitable candidate for application in low-dose rate brachytherapy. According to Peralta and Rego [1], the BCF-10 and BCF-60 scintillating optical fibers used in dosimetry exhibit high variations in their sensitivity for photon beams in the 25–100kVp energy range. Energy linearity for energies below 50keV needs to be further investigated, using monochromatic X-ray photons.