¹⁹⁸Au Implantation of Carcinoma of the Mobile Tongue

Abstract

Radioactive gold seeds for permanent interstitial radiation therapy were introduced in 1951 by Colmery. His technical application was rapidly perfected by Sinclair in 1952. Since then, the method has been applied in the USA on various tumors, especially by Henschke (1958; Henschke et al. 1953), and in France by Pierquin (1964, Pierquin et al. 1962). Today, interstitial radiotherapy with direct implantation of ¹⁹⁸Au seeds is rarely used. It has been replaced either by interstitial afterloading therapy or interstitial direct implantation of ¹²⁵ I seeds, because the hard γ-rays of ¹⁹⁸Au seeds give less protection to the treating personnel. Nevertheless, ¹⁹⁸Au interstitial implantation offers without doubt a method of optimal local cure by intratumoral irradiation. Furthermore, it has — compared with afterloading therapy — the advantage of a continuous effective dosage, which accumulates to 90% within 8 days. This means that a tumor cell with a life cycle of between 8 and 24 h will be irradiated at least once in its sensitive phase of development, resulting in a better selective influence of the irradiation on the tumor cells, while cells of the connective tissue are spared (Schumacher 1974). The encyclopedical character of the present volume therefore justifies the dedication of one chapter to ¹⁹⁸Au-seed implantation, as in the future this method might have a renaissance.