High-Dose Rate Brachytherapy for Uterine Cancer

Uterine Cancer Treatment: High-Dose Rate Brachytherapy

Also called interstitial irradiation, High-Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy is an innovative form of internal radiotherapy (radiation treatments). At Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), internal radiotherapy is often used as part of our comprehensive, aggressive approach to treating uterine cancer. Internal radiotherapy is also frequently used in the treatment of other cancers, including lung, breast, rectum, cervical and tongue cancers.

For uterine cancer and endometrial cancer, HDR brachytherapy may help to not only avoid damage to healthy tissue, but also greatly reduce your recovery time. The expert gynecologic oncologists and radiation oncologists at CTCA are able to utilize brachytherapy as a post-operative treatment. In many cases, this uterine cancer treatment option is combined with external beam radiation, and can be performed on an outpatient basis.

A quicker, more effective way to give radiation treatments, brachytherapy places pellets of radiation inside your tumor, tightly focusing it within the site of the cancer. This innovative technique ensures the maximum dose of radiation is delivered where you need it most, while limiting the amount of radiation that reaches the healthy surrounding tissue.

In many cases, brachytherapy is an effective alternative to surgical removal of a tumor and the affected organ.

Benefits of HDR brachytherapy as a uterine cancer treatment include the following:

• Instead of the five to seven weeks required for other conventional treatments for uterine cancer, the entire brachytherapy treatment may take merely just a few days.
• By concentrating the radiation in the area of the body where the tumor was previously removed, less radiation will reach the healthy tissues of the affected organ, and the body as a whole.
• Because HDR brachytherapy does not cause the irritation and burning to your skin that is sometimes associated with external radiation, the side effects of treatment may be reduced.

Next Topic: TomoTherapy® for Uterine Cancer