Pulsed brachytherapy: a modelled consideration of repair parameter uncertainties and their influence on treatment duration extension and daytime-only block-schemes

摘要

ObjectivesThe radiobiological modelling of all types of protracted brachytherapy is susceptible to uncertainties in the values of tissue repair parameters. Although this effect has been explored for many aspects of pulsed brachytherapy (PB), it is usually considered within the constraint of a fixed brachytherapy treatment time. Here the impact of repair parameter uncertainty is assessed for PB treatments of variable duration. The potential use of “block-schemes” (blocks of PB pulses separated by night-time gaps) is also investigated.