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Key benefits


What are the benefits of brachytherapy?

The precise and targeted nature of brachytherapy provides a number of key benefits for the effective treatment of cancer.

Brachytherapy provides:

Precision
Planning software and imaging provide an accurate picture of the tumor size, location and its relation to other surrounding organs. This translates into a 3D ‘virtual patient’, which facilitates the delivery of a highly targeted and individualized radiation doses directly to the target tumor.


Conformity
The radiation dose and distribution of the radiation is calculated to exactly match the size and shape of the tumor. This ensures that the whole of the tumor receives the correct radiation dose, while also preventing unnecessary radiation to surrounding tissues. The physics of brachytherapy depends on the ‘inverse square law’; this states that around a source of radiation, the dose ‘falls off’ at the square of the distance. Consequently, tissues around the tumor receive a much lower dose than anticipated by other radiation methods.


Efficacy
Brachytherapy cancer cure rates are comparable to surgery and EBRT when used as monotherapy. For advanced tumors, combination treatment of brachytherapy with surgery or EBRT can improve efficacy over surgery or EBRT alone, with an associated reduction in toxicity.1-6


Minimized risk of side effects
Surrounding healthy tissue is spared from unnecessary radiation,7 resulting in fewer adverse events than alternatives such as EBRT and surgery, benefiting patients post treatment.8,9


Short treatment times
A course of therapy can be completed in less time than other radiotherapy techniques, typically 1 to 5 days with minimal recovery times of 2 to 5 days. Brachytherapy is more time efficient and patient friendly, allowing patients to get back to their everyday life sooner.10,11

Ease of use
State-of-the-art technologies for treatment planning, imaging and treatment delivery simplify the treatment process and save valuable time for staff and patients. Outcomes are easily reproducible with consistent quality.12

Cost-effectiveness
Short treatment times, the ability to provide outpatient procedures and low investment and maintenance charges result in less cost for both provider and patient.


Radiation protection
Specially built units (called afterloaders) store and control the delivery of radioactive sources to the tumor, minimizing the radiation risk to staff and patients.

References

  1. Viswanathan AN, et al. In Devlin PM (Ed), Brachytherapy: applications and techniques. Philadelphia, PA, LWW. 2007.
  2. Pickles T, Keyes M, Morris WJ. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2010;76(1):43–9.
  3. Haie-Meder C, Chargari C, Rey A, et al. Radiother Oncol 2009;93(2):316–21.
  4. Galalae R, Martinez A, Mate T, et al. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2004;58(4):1048–55.
  5. Hoskin PJ, Motohashi K, Bownes P, et al. Radiother Oncol 2007;84(2):114–20.
  6. Pieters BR, de Back DZ, Koning CCE, Zwinderman AH. Radiother Oncol 2009;93(2):168–73.
  7. Nag S. Technol Cancer Res Treat 2004;3(3):269–87.
  8. Frank S, Pisters L, Davis J, et al. J Urol 2007;177(6):2151–56.
  9. Ferrer M, Suarez JF, Guedea F, et al. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2008;72(2):421–32.
  10. Kelley JR et al. In Devlin PM (Ed), Brachytherapy: applications and techniques. Philadelphia, PA, LWW. 2007.
  11. BMJ Group (June 2009). Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/besttreatments/prostate-cancer-treatmentsinternal-radiotherapy-brachytherapy. Accessed 30 December 2009.
  12. Beaulieu L, Radford Evans DA, Aubins S, et al. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2007;67(1):71–7.
Page last updated on 14 January 2011.

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