In their article, Olipitz et al. (2012) examined signs of DNA damage after chronic exposure of C57Bl6 mice to low-level ionizing radiation (3 mGy/day). For 5 weeks, mice were irradiated continuously with 35.5 keV X-rays produced by the decay of iodine-125, yielding an accumulated dose of 105 mGy. The observed effects were compared with those from acute irradiation by X-ray machine at 1,700 mGy/...

High dose rate (HDR) afterloading brachytherapy in the management of localised prostate cancer has practical, physical and biological advantages over low dose rate seed brachytherapy. There are no free live sources used, no risk of source loss and since the implant is a temporary procedure following discharge no issues with regard to radioprotection use of existing facilities. Adequate coverage...

Brachytherapy results in better dose distribution compared with other treatments because of steep dose reduction in the surrounding normal tissues. Excellent local control rates and acceptable side effects have been demonstrated with brachytherapy as a sole treatment modality, a postoperative method, and a method of reirradiation. Low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy has been employed worldwide fo...

Dear Editor-in-Chief, In a recent letter, Das and Peters [1] have made the suggestion that dose rate is not an important factor in determining the effectiveness of endovascular brachytherapy. As we [2–4] and others [5] have argued earlier, we suggest here that the dose rate or, equivalently, the treatment time, is important. Das and Peters [1] correctly argue that if the irradiation time is muc...

In their article, Olipitz et al. (2012) examined signs of DNA damage after chronic exposure of C57Bl6 mice to low-level ionizing radiation (3 mGy/day). For 5 weeks, mice were irradiated continuously with 35.5 keV X-rays produced by the decay of iodine-125, yielding an accumulated dose of 105 mGy. The observed effects were compared with those from acute irradiation by X-ray machine at 1,700 mGy/...

Introduction/Background Over the last 2 decades, significant technical advancements have improved the delivery of prostate brachytherapy. The transrectal ultrasound-guided implant technique is the backbone of modern prostate brachytherapy. Whether it is permanent or temporary, ie, low-dose-rate (LDR) or high-dose-rate (HDR), respectively, both use similar image-guided techniques for inserting s...

When optimizing variable dose rate VMAT (VDR) beams, the leaf positions and the MU of each control point are optimized simultaneously (Figure 1). Since the MU is not allowed to be individually optimized for each control point for a constant dose rate VMAT (CDR) beam (Figure 2), it is likely that the plan quality is reduced compared to a VDR beam with the same angle settings. To obtain a good qu...