An experimental brachytherapy model has been developed to study acute and late normal tissue reactions as a tool to examine the effects of clinically relevant multifractionation schedules. Pig skin was used as a model since its morphology, structure, cell kinetics and radiation-induced responses are similar to human skin. Brachytherapy was performed using a microSelectron high dose rate (HDR) a...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate complications in uterine cervical cancer patients treated with teletherapy combined with high dose rate(HDR) cobalt-60 brachytherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective study of uterine cervical cancer patients, stages IB-IVB (International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians recommendations), treated by radiotherapy alone between April 1986 and December 19...

PURPOSE To evaluate the dosimetric impact of lung tissue in Ir-192 APBI. MATERIAL AND METHODS In a 40 × 40 × 40 cm(3) water tank, an Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI) brachytherapy balloon inflated to 4 cm diameter was situated directly below the center of a 30 × 30 × 1 cm(3) solid water slab. Nine cm of solid water was stacked above the 1 cm base. A parallel plate ion chamber was...

This study was designed to estimate radiation-induced secondary cancer risks from high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy and external radiotherapy for patients with cervical cancer based on measurements of doses absorbed by various organs. Organ doses from HDR brachytherapy and external radiotherapy were measured using glass rod dosimeters. Doses to out-of-field organs were measured at various loca...

Applicators containing metal have been widely used in recent years when applying brachytherapy to patients with cervical cancer. However, the high dose rate (HDR) treatment-planning system (TPS) that is currently used in brachytherapy still assumes that the treatment environment constitutes a homogeneous water medium and does not include a dose correction for the metal material of the applicato...

In Japan, radiotherapy with high dose rate remote after loading system (HDR-RALS) for intracavitary brachytherapy is the standard treatment for more than 30 years. This report showed the usefulness of HDR-RALS for uterine cervical cancer. From 1980 through 1999, 442 patients with uterine cervical cancers (stage I: 66, stage II: 161, stage III: 165, stage IV: 50) were treated. Radiotherapy was p...

BACKGROUND The study aimed to assess the effect of High Dose Rate (HDR) Interstitial Brachytherapy when used alone or in combination with External Beam Radiotherapy (EBRT), in early and locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of buccal mucosa. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty three patients with histologically proven squamous cell carcinoma of the buccal mucosa received high dose rate interstiti...

PURPOSE Almost 30% of malignancies in women of developing countries are gynecological and brachytherapy is an integral part of management of these patients. Reports of complications (both acute and late) of high-dose-rate (HDR) intracavitary brachytherapy are sparse in world literature due to relatively small number of gynecological malignancies, particularly in advanced stage, in developed cou...

Introduction: The dwell time and transit time components contribute to the overall delivered dose to patients in high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatments. The transit time results from source entry and exit as well as source movements between dwell positions. It depends on various parameters such as the source speed profile, source indexer distance to dwell position, and ...

We report a unique case of successfully performed intraluminal brachytherapy for low volume urethral mucosal recurrence of transitional cell carcinoma urinary bladder, initially treated by transurethral resection of bladder tumor, followed by radical cystectomy. Since the patient was unwilling to undergo any other operational interventions, intraluminal brachytherapy of urethra was attempted. F...