High dose rate (HDR) endobronchial brachytherapy is a palliative treatment for symptomatic airway obstruction by malignant tumours. We report a novel use of HDR brachytherapy for treating nonmalignant bronchial obstruction. The patient had a metal stent placed in a reconstructed airway after a bronchial tear to ensure patency. Granulation tissue formation in and around the stent caused symptoma...

Interstitial brachytherapy represents the treatment of choice for small tumours, regionally localized in the oral cavity and the oropharynx. In the technical setting, continuous low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy represented for many years the gold standard for administering radiation in head and neck brachytherapy. Large series of head and neck cancer patients treated with LDR brachytherapy hav...

BACKGROUND We evaluated whether detection of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and human kallikrein 2 (hK2) transcripts in the peripheral blood during brachytherapy could predict biochemical outcome. METHODS Eighty-one patients who underwent (125)Iodine-based brachytherapy for localized prostate cancer (Gleason score <8, PSA <20 ng/ml, stage <T3), participated in the study. Brachytherapy was gi...

OBJECTIVES We sought to demonstrate that brachytherapy reduces coronary spasm in refractory and highly symptomatic variant angina. BACKGROUND In some patients with variant angina due to extensive vasoconstriction, intensive drug therapy fails to sufficiently relieve symptoms. METHODS In 18 patients with frequent angina episodes despite triple anti-anginal therapy, coronary spasm was induced...

Brachytherapy is an essential component of the treatment of locally advanced cervical cancers. It enables the dose to the tumor to be boosted whilst allowing relative sparing of the normal tissues. Traditionally, cervical brachytherapy was prescribed to point A but since the GEC-ESTRO guidelines were published in 2005, there has been a move towards prescribing the dose to a 3D volume. Image gui...

BACKGROUND Surgical treatment remains the mainstay therapy for recurrence of head and neck cancer after previous radiotherapy. In inoperable cases, interstitial high-dose rate brachytherapy is a treatment option for local dose escalation. PATIENTS AND METHODS A retrospective analysis of all patients who were treated solely with brachytherapy for advanced non-resectable recurrences of squamous...

PURPOSE To report peri-operative fractionated high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy with a 3D customized Freiburg flap applicator to treat locally recurrent Wilms' tumor, followed by immediate hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy for a 16-year-old with a second recurrence of nephroblastoma (Wilms' tumor). MATERIAL AND METHODS The tumor was excised and surgical bed was treated with fractiona...

Nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is an increasing health care issue in the United States, significantly affecting quality of life and impacting health care costs. Radiotherapy has a long history in the treatment of NMSC. Shortly after the discovery of X-rays and (226)Radium, physicians cured patients with NMSC using these new treatments. Both X-ray therapy and brachytherapy have evolved over the ...

Background: One of the main causes of induction of secondary cancer in radiation therapy is neutron contamination received by patients during treatment.Objective: In the present study the impact of wedge and block on neutron contamination production is investigated. The evaluations are conducted for a 15 MV Siemens Primus linear accelerator. Methods: Simulations were performed using MCNPX Monte...

PURPOSE To present the American Brachytherapy Society (ABS) guidelines for plaque brachytherapy of choroidal melanoma and retinoblastoma. METHODS AND MATERIALS An international multicenter Ophthalmic Oncology Task Force (OOTF) was assembled to include 47 radiation oncologists, medical physicists, and ophthalmic oncologists from 10 countries. The ABS-OOTF produced collaborative guidelines, bas...