Evolution of different reaction methods resulting in the formation of AgI125 for use in brachytherapy sources

Prostate cancer represents about 10% of all cases of cancer in the world. Brachytherapy has been extensively used in the early and intermediate stages of the illness. The radiotherapy method reduces the damage probability to surrounding healthy tissues. The present study compares several deposition methods of iodine-125 on silver substrate (seed core), in order to choose the most suitable one to be implemented at IPEN. Four methods were selected: method 1 (assay based on electrodeposition) which presented efficiency of 65.16%; method 2 (assay based on chemical reactions, developed by David Kubiatowicz) which presented efficiency of 70.80%; method 3 (chemical reaction based on the methodology developed by Dr. Maria Elisa Rostelato) which presented efficiency of 55.80%; new method developed by IPEN with 90.5% efficiency. Based on the results, the new method is the suggested one to be implemented. (authors)