Californium-252 radioisotopic neutron source capsules have been used for brachytherapy treatment of tumors for nearly 30 years. In the United States, several manually afterloaded low-dose-rate (LDR) source designs have been produced;...
moreCalifornium-252 radioisotopic neutron source capsules have been used for brachytherapy treatment of tumors for nearly 30 years. In the United States, several manually afterloaded low-dose-rate (LDR) source designs have been produced; internationally, only four remotely afterloaded high- dose-rate (HDR) systems are known to have been demonstrated. These HDR systems typically used source capsules with diameters of several millimeters, which restricted their application in treating tumors in geometrically constrained or neurologically sensitive locations. The Californium Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in collaboration with Isotron, Inc., is developing a family of miniature HDR 252Cf source designs that will be coupled to a remote afterloader system (RAS) for treatment of a variety of tumors. Providing an HDR brachytherapy source with dimensions significantly smaller than comparable HDR sources will enable unprecedented treatments of radioresistant cancers. Such cancer...
