As most local recurrence after breast-conserving treatment occurs within 2 cm around the lumpectomy cavity, wide-volume partial breast rather than whole breast irradiation has been actively investigated with a view to decreasing radiation toxicities. Replacing external beam radiotherapy by wide-volume interstitial brachytherapy offers the advantages of more accurate treatment volume coverage an...

Radiotherapy procedures fall into two main categories: external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy. In external beam radiotherapy the radiation source is at a certain distance from the patient and the target within the patient is irradiated with an external radiation beam. In brachytherapy (see Chapter 13) radiation sources are placed directly into the target volume (intracavitary or interstit...

Gynecologic brachytherapy is a form of cancer treatment in which radioactive sources are placed into the pelvic organs via specialized applicators. Traditional low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy has been performed over several days in a hospital setting. Since the 1990s, high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy has been used increasingly because of its decreased treatment time, outpatient administrati...

Postoperative radiotherapy (RT) followed by vaginal cuff brachytherapy boost is used to prevent recurrences in the vaginal cuff in endometrial cancer management [1]. 8-year vaginal cuff local control rates for patients with endometrial carcinoma were reported to be 85% with surgery alone,96 % with adjuvant pelvic RT alone and combined pelvic RT + brachytherapy has yielded a local control rate o...

Recent data show that, at 10 years of followup, overall and cancer-specific survival after RT, whether it be external beam RT (EBRT), intensity-modulated RT, brachytherapy (also called interstitial RT), or brachytherapy plus EBRT, are similar to those achieved after radical prostatectomy (RP) [5]. However, the incidence of erectile dysfunction is 43–62% at 3 years after RT [6], and pain on orga...

In 2012, more than 500,000 cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed worldwide. Over three quarters of these cases occur in less developed countries [1]. Advancements in image-guided brachytherapy are resulting in improved outcomes and reduced morbidity for women with this disease, but its worldwide adoption is hampered by lack of accessibility to advanced imaging techniques. Ultrasound is emergi...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the relationship between two year PSA nadir (PSAn) after brachytherapy and biochemical recurrence rates in prostate cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS In the period from January 1998 to August 2007, 120 patients were treated with iodine-125 brachytherapy alone. The results analysis was based on the definition of biochemical recurrence according to the Phoenix Consens...

OBJECTIVE To compare the efficacy and safety of high dose rate (HDR) and low dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy in treating early-stage oral cancer. DATA SOURCES A systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane Library databases, restricted to English language up to June 1, 2012, was performed to identify potentially relevant studies. STUDY SELECTION Only randomized controlled trials (RCT) an...

PURPOSE The purpose of this case series is to describe the treatment and outcomes of a cohort of patients with inoperable early-stage endometrioid endometrial cancer with 3D image-guided high-dose-rate (HDR) intracavitary brachytherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS A review was performed of patients with early-stage endometrial cancer who underwent primary radiation treatment between 2010 and 2016. ...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the efficacy of afterloading brachytherapy following radical neck dissection (RND) in the management of extensive cervical lymph node disease in nasopharyngeal carcinoma after radiotherapy; and to examine prospectively prognostic factors and the pathologic behavior of neck disease. PATIENTS Twenty-seven patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma who had extensive cervical l...