Brachytherapy

What is Brachytherapy ?

Brachytherapy is an effective form of radiotherapy commonly used in treatment for cervical, prostate, breast, and skin cancer and can also be used to treat tumours in many other body sites.

Brachytherapy works by accurately directing radiation to the cancerous tumour from inside the body. This custom approach reduces the risk of damage to the surrounding healthy tissue and organs that are close to the tumour, therefore, reducing side effects.

How it works ?

Brachytherapy uses a radiation source (called an implant) that's put directly inside the body in or near the tumour.

The implant is placed very close to or inside the tumour, so that it harms as few normal cells as possible. The advantage of Brachytherapy is that itpermits a higher dose of radiation in a smaller area as compared with external beam radiation treatment.

The dose delivery can be controlled more precisely in brachytherapy. It more accurately limits the dose to the surrounding normal tissue as well.

How it benefits Patients ?

• Brachytherapy is very effective in treating cancer, as the radiation is delivered with a high level of accuracy. It has a minimal risk of side effects, because of the targeted and exact nature of delivering the radiation from inside the body.

• It is usually minimally invasive and doesn't involve extensive surgery.

• Brachytherapy can usually be done on an outpatient basis, avoiding the need for an overnight stay in the hospital in many circumstances.

• It usually involves shorter treatment times (typically from one to five days) and has short recovery times (typically two to five days). Most people can usually return to everyday activities very quickly.

• Brachytherapy can allow patients to get back to their everyday lives sooner and with less disruption.