Dosimetric study of a low-dose-rate brachytherapy source

Moreover, experimental verification of dose distributions are hardly ever done. In this work we present a dosimetric characterisation of the Amersham CDCS-J 137Cs source, an LDR brachytherapy source commonly used in Mexican hospitals. To this end a Monte Carlo simulation was developed, that includes a realistic description of the internal structure of the source embedded in a scattering medium. The Monte Carlo results were compared to experimental measurements of dose distributions. A lucite phantom with the same geometric characteristics as the one used in the simulation was built. Dose measurements were performed using thermoluminescent dosimeters together with commercial RadioChromic dye film. A comparison between our Monte Carlo simulation, the experimental data, and results reported in the literature is presented. (orig.)