INTRODUCTION Cervical carcinoma has traditionally been treated with low-dose-rate brachytherapy. High-dose-rate brachytherapy was developed to overcome potential disadvantages of LDR brachytherapy (radiation exposure to medical staff, prolonged treatment time, mandatory hospitalization and applicator movement). Both, LDR and HDR brachytherapy have been combined with the external beam therapy (E...

PURPOSE There is little information in the literature on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) changes due to high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy monotherapy for prostate cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS We conducted a prospective study of HRQOL changes due to HDR brachytherapy monotherapy for low risk or favorable intermediate risk prostate cancer. Sixty-four of 84 (76 %) patients who were trea...

PURPOSE To evaluate dosimetric coverage of the prostate, normal tissue sparing, and acute toxicity with HDR brachytherapy for large prostate volumes. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred and two prostate cancer patients with prostate volumes >50 mL (range: 5-29 mL) were treated with high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy ± intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) to 4,500 cGy in 25 daily fractio...

High-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy is a popular modality for treating cancers of the prostate, cervix, endometrium, breast, skin, bronchus, esophagus, and head and neck as well as soft-tissue sarcomas. Because of different source designs and licensing issues, there is a need for specific dosimetry dataset for each HDR source model. The main objective of the present work is to measure 2D relativ...

Theoretical and experimental studies have been applied for dosimetric parameters determination of the brachytherapy sources (1-3). Usually, Monte Carlo method has been used to define such quantities as the anisotropy dose function, the radial dose function, and the dose calculation close to the source in brachytherapy (4-6). Ir source is used widely in brachytherapy to treat localized tumors ne...

PURPOSE The aim of this paper is to report the treatment of angiosarcoma of the scalp. High-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy with an individual mold applicator is presented. CASE DESCRIPTION A case of a 75-year-old male will be presented with multicentric lesions over the scalp in the temple and crown region. Biopsy diagnosis was angiosarcoma of the scalp, nonoperable. The patient was qualified ...

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine if stereotactic body radiosurgery (SBRT) using volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) can be used to deliver a boost to the vaginal cuff in patients with gynecological cancer as an alternative to high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy. Methods: Between January and July 2009, five patients with gynecological cancer were treated with postoperati...

Aim: To keep the cervical canal dilated after the fi rst high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy fraction to avoid general anesthesia during subsequent applications. Patients and Methods: In the fi rst HDR brachytherapy application: examination and cervical dilatation was done under general anesthesia. The proximal 4 cm of urinary Foley catheter was cut (making the new cervical tube), inserted in th...

Intracavitary brachytherapy treatment has a very important role in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. Brachytherapy is painful procedure, especially whom opening cannot be achieved, and requires analgesia immobilization. The American Association (ABA) recommends the use of conscious sedation as much possible intracavitary high-doserate (HDR) applications diagnosed In this review, w...

In this report we update our long-term follow-up results of the prospective study whose aim was to evaluate the efficacy of high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy in combination with external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT) in the treatment of medically inoperable endometrial cancer. Between 1995 and 1998, 29 patients with stages I-III medically inoperable carcinoma of endometrium were treated with defini...