Brachytherapy

Brachytherapy is a procedure in which radioactive material sealed in needles, seeds, wires, or catheters is placed directly into or near a tumour. This book provides practical guidance on the use of brachytherapy. It takes the reader through the basic principles, and covers physics, dosimetry, and protection issues.

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Brachytherapy is the delivery of radiation therapy using sealed sources which are placed as close as possible to the site to be treated. It is applicable for the treatment of tumours where a radiation source can be placed within a body cavity, such as the oesophagus or bronchus or where the tumour is accessible to needle or catheter sources being placed within it, such as the head and neck and skin. Brachytherapy has potential applications to most tumour sites. It can be used as primary treatment or in combination with external beam radiotherapy. This book provides practical guidance on the use of brachytherapy. Each chapter provides the reader with a solid background in the physics, and dosimetry of brachytherapy followed by practical information on the use of brachytherapy in common disease sites. Whilst low, medium, and high dose rate techniques are covered, emphasis is placed on high dose rate afterloading techniques, which are likely to replace most other forms of brachytherapy over the next decade. About the series: Radiotherapy remains the major non-surgical treatment modality for the management of malignant disease.
It is based on the application of the principles of applied physics, radiobiology, and tumour biology to clinical practice. Each volume in this series takes the reader through the basic principles of the use of ionising radiation, and then develops this by individual sites. This series of practical handbooks are aimed at physicians both training and practising in radiotherapy, as well as medical physicists, dosimetrists, radiographers and senior nurses.