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Soft tissue sarcomas


Brachytherapy for treating soft tissue sarcomas

Soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities are rare – typically affecting less than 1% of all adult malignant tumors.1

Typically, soft tissue sarcomas are treated by surgery, followed by radiotherapy to improve local control. Radiotherapy post surgery can be delivered either by external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) or brachytherapy, or as a combination of the two.

Low dose rate (LDR) or high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy can be used to treat soft tissue sarcomas. For general information on different types of brachytherapy, see the background section.

Brachytherapy offers several advantages over EBRT. Brachytherapy allows precise delivery of high radiation doses to the target tumor, while also sparing surrounding healthy tissues and organs from unnecessary radiation. Furthermore, brachytherapy has a short overall treatment time (4–6 days), making treatment more convenient for patients.1


References
  1. Raut CP, et al. In Devlin PM (Ed), Brachytherapy: applications and techniques. Philadelphia, PA, LWW. 2007.

Page last updated on 14 January 2011.

Brachytherapy

and other cancers

 

Cancer types



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