ABSTRACT
Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG were the first to introduce Co miniaturized high-dose rate (HDR) sources in 2003, and continue to innovate and contribute to the further advancement of brachytherapy, with promising new technologies emerging in the near future. Since its first use over a century ago, brachytherapy has allowed high radiation doses to be delivered to clinical targets while sparing adjacent healthy tissues. Many technological developments have enabled the range and complexity of treatments to enhance, from simple skin treatments and manual gynecological insertions, to sophisticated image-guided implants. Monte Carlo techniques are widely used to generate data describing the variation in dose-rate around specific brachytherapy source models. Healthcare will, without doubt, benefit from translational developments of information technology (IT)-technologies, driven by a multitude of needs from modern global society. Although in vivo dosimetry (IVD) has been available for brachytherapy applications for many years, its clinical adoption has been limited.
