Abstract
Dr. Bernard Aron, former chairman of radiation oncology at the University of Cincinnati, insisted that his residents learn brachytherapy techniques. “Brachytherapy is a tool that every complete radiation oncologist needs to have in his/her toolbox” [1]. In addition to the easier and simpler intracavitary brachytherapy that is commonly employed for gynecologic malignancies such as cervical and endometrial carcinoma, he encouraged his trainees to use interstitial brachytherapy for head and neck cancers, soft tissue sarcomas, and breast conservation boost. Later, he would admit that he did not give primary breast brachytherapy much thought because of the two negative trials from the United Kingdom, the Guy’s and Christie Hospital trials. At the current time, brachytherapy is not being taught in most radiation oncology residency programs, so there is danger that this useful means of delivering a tumoricidal dose of radiation could become a lost art.
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References
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Kuske, R.R. (2016). The Evolution of Brachytherapy Techniques and the Current Arizona Approach. In: Arthur, D., Vicini, F., Wazer, D., Khan, A. (eds) Short Course Breast Radiotherapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24388-7_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24388-7_16
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