Comment on 'egs_brachy: a versatile and fast Monte Carlo code for brachytherapy'.

Comment on 'egs_brachy: a versatile and fast Monte Carlo code for brachytherapy'. Phys Med Biol. 2017 Dec 01;: Authors: Yegin G Abstract In a recent paper (Chamberland et al, 2016) develop a new Monte Carlo code called egs_brachy for brachytherapy treatments. It is based on EGSnrc and written in C++ programming language. In order to benchmark the egs_brachy code, the authors use it in various test case scenarios in which complex geometry conditions are exist. Another EGSnrc based brachytherapy dose calculation engine BrachyDose is used for dose comparisons.
 
 The authors fail to prove that egs_brachy can produce reasonable dose values for brachytherapy sources in a given medium. The dose comparisons in the paper are erroneous and misleading. egs_brachy shouldn't be used in any further research studies unless all the potential bugs are fixed in the code. Otherwise, unreliable dose values produced by egs_brachy may lead to misinterpretations, which may also threaten patient safety. PMID: 29192610 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - Category: Physics Authors: Tags: Phys Med Biol Source Type: research