Program Information
3D Printed Brachytherapy Vaginal Cylinder Applicator with Curved Channel Ends
R Gutti*, F Zhang , M El-Ghamry , BSWH, Temple, Texas
Presentations
SU-E-205-1 (Sunday, July 30, 2017) 1:00 PM - 1:55 PM Room: 205
Purpose: To validate of a novel design 3D printed vaginal cylinder applicator for brachytherapy treatment applications. Most vaginal cylinders provide inadequate coverage at the apex of the cylinder near the cervix of the patient (single or multiple channels in the cylinder). A 3D printed cylinder with curved channels near the tip ends would facilitate adequate and uniform dose coverage near the cervix.
Methods: A vaginal cylinder (3.5cm dia) with four catheter channels and curved ends was designed in Solidworks and 3D printed with a ‘Form 2 3D printer and photoreactive resin’ (formlabs). The four channel cylinder includes adapters to attach 6F comfort catheter fasteners and angled grooves to use zip ties to aid in restricting cylinder motion relative to patient. CT scan of the cylinder was obtained and a brachytherapy treatment plan was created with four catheters using Oncentra planning system. A brachytherapy plan created with four catheters was created and observed the dose distribution to be superior with 100 percent isodose line coverage uniform at a depth of 5 cm from cylinder surface.
Results: 3D printing of the cylinder completed in 14 hours at high resolution of 0.1 mm layer thickness. CT hounsfield number from the CT scan was found to be 100±5 HU, similar to soft tissue. Further, CT scan verifies the accuracy of the 3D printed curved channel ends. Following steam sterilization the cylinder was normal without any signs of wear or loss of integrity. Surface dose measurements using EBT3 gafchromic film (8.25 Gy) compare well within three percent of the treatment planning system calculated dose (8.4 Gy).
Conclusion: Superior dose delivery was achieved using state of the art 3D printing technology to create a vaginal cylinder applicator with curved channel ends. Validation of the methodology and the applicator was successfully completed including end to end test.
Contact Email: