The effect of rib and lung heterogeneities on the computed dose to lung in Ir-192 High-Dose-Rate breast brachytherapy: Monte Carlo versus a treatment planning system

Abstract

Taking into account the ribs and entering the actual data for breasts, ribs, and lungs, revealed an average overestimation of the dose by a factor of 8% in the lung for TPS calculations. Therefore, the accuracy of the TPS results may be limited to regions near the implants where the treatment is planned, and is a more conservative approach for regions at boundaries with curvatures or tissues with a different material than that in the breast.