Radiation Dose to Medical Staff in ¹⁷⁷Lu-PSMA-DKFZ-617 therapy And Estimation of Annual Dose

Abstract

Radioligand therapy applications for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer have been continuously rising in most nuclear medicine departments in Iran, but to our knowledge, no one has studied the doses of staff who perform treatment procedures. The current study aimed to determine the external radiation dose received by the staff of patients treated with ¹⁷⁷Lu- prostate-specific membrane antigen therapy with and without a lead shield. This study used a dose ionization chamber to measure dose rates to the staff at various distances from patients and determined the average time spent by staff at these distances using an ionization chamber. Deep-dose equivalent to staff was obtained. The measured deep-dose equivalent to staff per patient was whitening the range of 1.8 to 5.2 mSv using a lead shield and 3.3 to 8.1 mSv without a lead shield. This study showed that a 2-mm lead shield markedly reduced the external dose to staff.It was indicated that the skill, accuracy, and speed of action of staff can directly affect their received dose.