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Brachytherapy

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Cancer

  • 168 Accesses

Synonyms

Endocurietherapy; Radioactive seed therapy

Definition

Brachytheapy treatments deliver radiation dose using radioactive isotopes placed via applicator devices or catheters directly into tumors or into cavities in close approximation to the tumor.

Characteristics

Radiation therapy is the treatment of cancer with radiation. Radiation targets the DNA in cells and causes DNA strand breaks. Normal cells have the ability to repair the DNA damage, whereas cancer cells lack such repair mechanisms.

Brachytherapy is one method of delivering radiation. The word “brachy” is derived from Greek meaning “short.” The radiation from the radioactive isotopes penetrates a short distance, allowing for conformity to a target volume or tumor while sparing the normal structures in the vicinity. The dose falloff for a single brachythrapy source follows the inverse square law, in that the distance traveled by the radiation is inversely proportional to the square of the radius of distance (d = 1/r2).

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References

  • Aronowitz JN (2015) Afterloading: the technique that rescued brachytherapy. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 92(3):479–487

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  • Lee KK, Lee JY, Nam JM, Kim CB, Park KR (2015) High-dose rate vs. low-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy for carcinoma of the uterine cervix: systematic review and meta-analysis. Brachytherapy 14(4):449–457

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See Also

  • (2012) Dose fall-off. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1154. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_1712

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  • (2012) Dose homogeneity. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1155. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_1713

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  • (2012) Dose rate. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1155. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_1715

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  • (2012) Dwell positions. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1173. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_1755

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  • (2012) Half-life. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1625. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_2554

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  • (2012) Isodose. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 1917. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_3156

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  • (2012) Radiobiology. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 3147. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_4915

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver Island Centre, Victoria, BC, Canada

    Caroline L. Holloway

  2. Brigham and Women’s/Dana-Farber Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Akila N. Viswanathan

Authors
  1. Caroline L. Holloway
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  2. Akila N. Viswanathan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Caroline L. Holloway .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tumorgenetik, Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Heidelberg, Germany

    Manfred Schwab

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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Holloway, C.L., Viswanathan, A.N. (2015). Brachytherapy. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_699-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_699-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences

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