Brachytherapy optimal planning with application to intravascular radiation therapy

We have been studying brachytherapy planning with the objective of minimizing the maximum deviation of the delivered dose from prescribed dose bounds for treatment volumes. A general framework for optimal treatment planning is presented and the minmax optimization is formulated as a linear program. Dose rate calculations are based on the dosimetry formulation of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, Task Group 43. We apply the technique to optimal planning for intravascular brachytherapy of intimal hyperplasia using ultrasound data and 192Ir seeds. The planning includes determination of an optimal dwell-time sequence for a train of seeds that deliver radiation while stepping through the vessel lesion. The results illustrate the advantage of this strategy over the common approach of delivering radiation by positioning a single train of seeds along the whole lesion.