The PTB primary standard for the absorbed-dose to water for I-125 interstitial brachytherapy sources

The German national metrology institute (PTB) developed a primary standard in terms of absorbed-dose to water Dw for low-energy interstitial brachytherapy sources, which is based on an extrapolation chamber in a phantom of water-equivalent material. The method to determine Dw from extrapolation chamber measurements has been newly developed and is already described in the literature. With the chamber the absorbed-dose at 30 cm distance from the source is measured and the quantity is converted into the desired quantity, the absorbed-dose to water measured at 1 cm distance perpendicular to the source axis. In this paper, a synthesis of the work done within the EMRP Project: 'TP2.JRP6: Increasing Cancer Treatment Efficacy Using 3D Brachytherapy' is given and the final results and the final uncertainty budget are presented. Furthermore, an experimentally determined dose-rate constant for this seed type (BEBIG Symmetra I25.S16) is given based on the measurement of four different instances. (author)