Evaluation of bone dose arising from skin cancer brachytherapy: A comparison between 192Ir and 60Co sources through Monte Carlo simulations

Abstract

PurposeThis study aimed to calculate and compare absorbed dose to bone following exposure to 192Ir and 60Co sources in high dose rate (HDR) skin brachytherapy. Moreover, effects of the bone thickness and soft tissue thickness before the bone on absorbed dose to the bone are evaluated . Materials and methods192Ir and 60Co sources inserted in Leipzig applicators with internal diameters of 1, 2 and 3 cm with/without their optimal flattening filters were simulated by MCNPX Monte Carlo code. Then, heterogeneous phantoms (including skin, soft tissue before and after the bone, cortical bone and bone marrow) were defined. Finally, relative depth dose values for the bone and other tissues in the heterogeneous phantoms were obtained and compared. ResultsThe average relative depth dose values of the skin, soft tissue before and after bone and bone marrow were almost similar for both 192Ir and 60Co sources, with a maximum difference less than 2%. However, a 0.1–6.8% difference was observed between average relative depth dose values of these two sources for the cortical bone. The results showed that with increasing the bone thickness and bone distance from the skin surface, the average relative depth dose values of the bone marrow and cortical bone decreased for both 192Ir and 60Co sources inserted in the applicators without/with their optimal flattening filters. For most of evaluated the applicators without/with their flattening filters, the average relative depth dose values of the bone marrow arisen from the 60Co source were higher than those obtained from the 192Ir source, while an opposite trend was observed for the cortical bone . ConclusionThe obtained findings showed that the average relative depth dose values of 192Ir and 60Co sources at the corresponding depths of the designed heterogeneous phantoms were almost similar (expect for the cortical bone). Hence, it is concluded that 60Co source can be used instead of 192Ir source in HDR skin brachytherapy, particularly in developing countries.