Inverse dose optimization for the HDR brachytherapy of the prostate carcinoma

The work aimed to a mathematical optimization concept for the irradiation planning as new clinical routine in HDR brachytherapy of the prostate carcinoma. The first milestone was the definition of the optimization criteria, since the implemented algorithms do not consider different planning routines. The calculated plans were compared with manually optimized plans - the comparability of both plans with respect to dosimetric parameters and quantitative quality criteria was shown. The mathematical optimization does also confirm robustness against uncertainties of applied doses. In practice the mathematical method is significantly more effective with respect to time effort and reproducibility.