A radionuclide dosimetry toolkit based on material-specific Monte Carlo dose kernels

Abstract

Objective We sought to develop a user-friendly dosimetry toolkit that should aid the improvement of the quality of radionuclide therapy, which is critically dependent on patient-specific planning of each treatment. Methods In this work, we present a new toolkit suitable for indicative radionuclide dose calculation. The software is built using open source tools and it uses dose kernels calculated using the Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission simulation toolkit. In addition, a method that uses kernel data to extract a material-specific dose absorption factor is described and a proof of concept is given. In this work, time dependency and organ sensitivity are not modeled. Results The developed software utilizes Monte Carlo calculated dose kernels and proposes a fast dose calculation method. Using computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging it can provide a more accurate and personalized indicative dose map. Conclusion Dosimetry based on quantitative three-dimensional data is more accurate and allows a more individualized approach in patient therapy. Moreover, the use of this toolkit with the standardization for data collection and processing will increase the accuracy as well as the compatibility of radiation dose. Nucl Med Commun 30:504-512 (C) 2009 Wolters Kluwer Health vertical bar Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.