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Radiation therapy is commonly used in prostate cancer treatment. It may be used instead of surgery or after surgery in early-stage prostate cancer (adjuvant radiotherapy). Radiation treatments also can be combined with hormonal therapy for intermediate risk disease, when surgery or radiation therapy alone is less likely to cure the cancer.
It is distinct from acute radiation syndrome, in that it occurs at dose rates low enough to permit natural repair mechanisms to compete with the radiation damage during the exposure period. Dose rates high enough to cause the acute form (> ~0.1 Gy/h) are fatal long before onset of the chronic form.
Since its introduction in the mid-1980s, prostate brachytherapy has become a well-established treatment option for patients with early, localised disease. In the US, over 50,000 eligible prostate cancer patients a year are treated using this method. [12] Brachytherapy is now in widespread use across the world.
The depth of penetration is very limited, typically either ½ cm to 1 cm depth, sometimes requiring extensive surgery due to the limited penetration of the radiation. Treatments tend to be 40 minutes or longer, resulting in greater OR time, more anesthesia and greater blood loss when compared to electron IORT.
Targeted intra-operative radiotherapy, also known as targeted IORT, is a technique of giving radiotherapy to the tissues surrounding a cancer after its surgical removal, a form of intraoperative radiation therapy. The technique was designed in 1998 at the University College London.
Radiation therapy treatments to the head and neck regions for soft tissue, palate or bone cancer can cause chronic sinus tract draining and fistulae from the bone. [5] Lymphedema Lymphedema, a condition of localized fluid retention and tissue swelling, can result from damage to the lymphatic system sustained during radiation therapy.
Plus, what to do about it.
Body sites in which brachytherapy can be used to treat cancer. Brachytherapy is commonly used to treat cancers of the cervix, prostate, breast, and skin. [1]Brachytherapy can also be used in the treatment of tumours of the brain, eye, head and neck region (lip, floor of mouth, tongue, nasopharynx and oropharynx), [10] respiratory tract (trachea and bronchi), digestive tract (oesophagus, gall ...