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Therapeutic Nuclear Medicine pp 725–734Cite as

Epidermal Radionuclide Therapy: Dermatological High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy for the Treatment of Basal and Squamous Cell Carcinoma

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Part of the book series: Medical Radiology ((Med Radiol Radiat Oncol))

Abstract

Non-melanocytic skin cancer (NMSC) is the most frequent malignancy among populations of European origin, and in some countries it accounts for about half of all tumours. In the present paper a therapeutic option for the treatment of Basal CellCell Carcinoma (BCC) and Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) is described. It basically consists in a superficial high dose brachytherapy, characterised by the use of radioactive beta emitting isotopes, incorporated in a specially formulated inert, synthetic resin, which is applied on the surface of skin tumours. The electrons from high energy (> 1MeV) beta emitters isotopes deposit more than 90 % of the dose to the first 2 mm of the skin, which is the depth usually interested from tumour invasion, but spare the deeper tissues from irradiation. The therapy has been used in a large variety of BCC and SCC: tumours of very large sizes, relapsing or recurrent forms, multifocal lesions, without restriction of site, dimension, clinical or histological type, patients clinical situation. A complete response was obtained in 95% of the treated lesions, and in 84 % of the lesions after a single application. A clear advantage of the proposed nuclear medicine therapeutic treatment with respect to the surgery is especially evident for all the tumours located in difficult sites, on which surgery would be difficult (nose, ears) or would produce functional mutilations (penis, vulva, eyelids)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nuclear Medicine Department, S. Eugenio Hospital, piazzale dell’Umanesimo 10, 00144, Rome, Italy

    Cesidio Cipriani

  2. Physics and New Materials Department, ENEA - Casaccia, s.p. Anguillarese 301, 00123, Rome, Italy

    Antioco F. Sedda

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  1. Cesidio Cipriani
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  2. Antioco F. Sedda
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Correspondence to Antioco F. Sedda .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. THERANOSTICS Center for Molecular, Radiotherapy and Molecular Imaging, ENETS Center of Excellence, Bad Berka, Germany

    Richard P. Baum

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Cipriani, C., Sedda, A.F. (2012). Epidermal Radionuclide Therapy: Dermatological High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy for the Treatment of Basal and Squamous Cell Carcinoma. In: Baum, R. (eds) Therapeutic Nuclear Medicine. Medical Radiology(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/174_2012_778

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/174_2012_778

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-36718-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-36719-2

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