Dosimetry for Beta-Emitter Radionuclides by Means of Monte Carlo Simulations

P. PÉREZ; F. BOTTA; G. PEDROLI; M. VALENTE

12 Chapters on Nuclear Medicine

Intech

Lugar: Rijeka; Año: 2011; p. 265 - 286

It is well known that beta nuclides have proved to be appropriate for targeted radiotherapy. Dosimetric performance of each radionuclide has to be carefully investigated and characterized. One usual and practical dosimetric approach is the calculation of dose distribution about a unit point source of any radionuclide of interest, which is known as dosepoint kernel. Total absorbed dose distribution results from the  contribution of primary and scattering radiation. This work consists on general-purposes guidelines to perform dose distribution calculations for nuclear medicine dosimetry by means of Monte Carlo methods. The proposed procedure is focused to a general overview about main  features regarding Monte Carlo techniques for nuclear medicine  dosimetry. In this sense, it is presented an extended explanation -within  an introductory framework- about how to develop dedicated subroutines for calculating relevant dosimetric parameters along with 3D spatial distribution of absorbed doses for beta-emitter radionuclides used for  nuclear medicine treatments along with quantities with biological  relevance like TCP and NTCP. Furthermore, it is shown how to elaborate adapted subroutines capable of computing separately primary and  scattering contributions to the total absorbed dose. In addition, it is  proposed a typical procedure aimed to preliminary testing the suitability of the developed calculation system when applying it to monoenergetic  sources. Finally, the reliability and capability of the calculation system  are checked for characterization of different beta-minus radionuclides of nuclear medicine targeted radiotherapy.