Procedure for prostate brachy Flashcards
pre-US patient prep
patient under anesthesia patient positioned with legs on stirrups catheter in rectal suctioning disinfectant
distance between holes in template
5 mm
sterile area
cannot touch anyone or anything within this region
virtual plan in oncentra
put on rough contours that encompass entire area where doctor puts needles
- needles are assigned to grid positions in TPS according to where RO wants to put the needles
- o Virtual planning may be used to investigate different needle arrangements by checking which give the best dose distribution when inverse optimization is performed.
Once needle placement is finalized, remove obturators and acquire final image of the prostate
how does doctor load needles
peripheral (outside on top 2 rows)
remaining rows- put needles in middle
skip a row
another row on bottom
too few needles- have to fire source for too long and get hot spots
too many needles - shadows from needles can make it difficult to see all of them (this is also why we load from top to bottom so doctor can see that
measures distance from template to ring
template position in oncentra = 193 - (template to ring)
base vs apex of prostate
base = sup portion apex = inf portion
how does the US give a 3D image?
- US acquires single axial plane at a time
- pull US out and acquire whole time to get 3D image
prostate PTV margin
- only to allow souce to fire just outside prostate, not trying to cover the PTV
- 3 mm in each direction except post (rectum) and sup (bladder)
recording needle positions for Oncentra
doctor reads out positions of each needled
later therapists measure free lengths (2 therapists measure and if they disagree a third confirms)
knowledge of total needle length is used to determine lenght of needle inside patient. Software will update needle contours once free needle lengths are entered
o In order to have the measured free length correspond to a location on the US image, must also measure distance from the outer surface of the template to a reference point on the probe. Knowing the distance from this reference point to the base plane (the plane of the transverse crystals) allows distance from the template to the base plane to be known; and from this the needle tip can be assigned to a particular location in the US image if the free length is known.
needles in Urethra?
normally no
want 100% of dose to urethra, no more (urinary retention)
what does physician do with the needles once Oncentra is switched to live plan?
pushes in needles further to base of prosate
how far do we want the needles to extend?
Needles have 1 cm deadspace at end
Want them to extend 1 cm beyond prostate (tough to do at sup end as run into bladder)
do we use plastic or metal needles
metal
-metal adds rigidity but plastic is more flexible (less predictable but can shape it a bit more)
what contours does the doctor draw in Oncentra
prostate (apex and base most important) - doc remembers where they put needles
- urethra
- rectum
US slice thickness
1 mm
issue with large prostate
more risk of urinary retention
pubic arch interference - appears as black triangles at edges of US field (pubic arch blocking prostate)
advantage of brachy vs just EBRT
- less dose to rectum compared to EBRT, thus can deliver higher dose
- don’t have PTV
- US probe actually creates space between rectum and prostate
what % of prostate patients get brachy
20%
what is done to needles in Oncentra?
reconstructed to line up with actual needle positions in all slices
3-4 pts per needle
-if needle at different positions on different sliced, go with midpoint
rectum constraint
V80% < 500 mm^3
target requirements
V90 ~ 100%
V200 < 11%
V150 < 33 -35%
V100 > 95%
How can you cool or warm up hot/cold spots
change local distribution function
pts to choose for RadCalc
10 pts, 2 planes
overview of steps in prostate brachy
acquire images
tell system where needles are
reconstruct needles
inverse optimize (IPSA)
when is dose not 15 Gy?
patient has IBS or collitis - patient gets 2 brachy sessions instead
gyne vs prostate step size
5 mm vs 2.5 mm
agreement between source calibration and activity
+/- 5 %
needles used at NSHA
1.9 mm trocar
with obturator inside to give rigidity when putting in the needles
what is checked during physics 2nd check
o Checking patient identity and other input data (e.g., correct source model, afterloader, step size, template, catheter type, indexer length)
o Correct US probe is used
o For prostate: tip to first dwell = 1 cm, free length agrees with values written down
o Checking that the correct applicator is used in the correct location
o Check that catheter reconstruction is correct and starts at the appropriate end; no bent needles etc
o Checking that the date and time are correct (check that source strength agrees with printed out table within 0.5%)
o Checking that the correct optimization process was used
o Correct prescription, F-factor
o Verifying that the doses at various points agree with an independent dose calculation within expected tolerance (e.g., RadCalc, 5 %)
o Checking that the treatment plan agrees with policies of treatment for patient’s disease (i.e., does this treatment make sense given patient disease)
o Acceptable DVH
o Checking that plan objectives were adequately satisfied
o Ensuring that there is a record of treatment.
o Care path updated
o ARIA EMR documents approved.
can you put a RadCalc point in a needle?
No, results won’t agree
what does physics do with therapists regarding after-loader tubes?
ensures number goes into right location
therapists survey afterloader to make sure source is inside
radius of urethra
3.5 mm
what does oncentra do to holes within proximity of urethra?
blocks them- cannot put needle here unless you free them
when is patient surveyed?
survey patient before and after treatment