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Body sites in which brachytherapy can be used to treat cancer. Brachytherapy is commonly used to treat cancers of the cervix, prostate, breast, and skin. [1]Brachytherapy can also be used in the treatment of tumours of the brain, eye, head and neck region (lip, floor of mouth, tongue, nasopharynx and oropharynx), [10] respiratory tract (trachea and bronchi), digestive tract (oesophagus, gall ...
Brachytherapy is a type of radiotherapy, or radiation treatment, offered to certain cancer patients. There are two types of brachytherapy – high dose-rate (HDR) and low dose-rate (LDR). LDR brachytherapy is the one most commonly used to treat prostate cancer. It may be referred to as 'seed implantation' or it may be called 'pinhole surgery'. [1]
Side effects of radiation therapy might occur after a few weeks into treatment. Both types of radiation therapy may cause diarrhea and mild rectal bleeding due to radiation proctitis, as well as potential urinary incontinence and impotence. Symptoms tend to improve over time except for erections which typically worsen as time progresses.
One of the recent methods in radiation therapy related to cancer care is called HDR (High Dose Rate) internal brachytherapy. Prior to HDR, LDR (Low Dose Rate) brachytherapy was commonly in use for prostate cancer. Chief urologist of Docrates, Dr. Martti Ala-Opas, was the first one in Finland who utilized LDR brachytherapy for prostate cancer.
Staging breast cancer is the initial step to help physicians determine the most appropriate course of treatment. As of 2016, guidelines incorporated biologic factors, such as tumor grade, cellular proliferation rate, estrogen and progesterone receptor expression, human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) expression, and gene expression profiling into the staging system.
High-dose chemotherapy (HDC) is a regimen of chemotherapy medicines given at larger dosages. This therapeutic strategy is used to treat some cancers, especially those that are aggressive or have a high chance of coming back. With increased doses of chemotherapy chemicals administered to the body, HDC seeks to optimize the death of cancer cells.
Radiation therapy in combination with chemotherapy has so far resulted in only minimal improvements to response rates. Trials with brachytherapy (an internal radiation treatment that delivers a high dose of radiation directly to the tumor and is thought to have fewer long-term side effects) have produced some positive results. [citation needed]
This allows a high dose to cancer tissues with a relatively low dose to other tissues. Although the side effects are often less severe than that seen of cytotoxic chemotherapeutics, life-threatening effects can occur. Initially, the targeted therapeutics were supposed to be solely selective for one protein.