Radiation oncologists at Penn Medicine use both internal and external forms of radiation therapy to treat cancer. Brachytherapy, or internal radiation therapy, either permanently or temporarily places radiation sources directly into or near the tumor inside the body.
Brachytherapy can be used to treat several different types of cancer, including prostate, skin, uterine, cervical, and head and neck, as well as other tumors. Occasionally, brachytherapy can either supplement external radiation or entirely replace surgery in the treatment of these cancers.
What is brachytherapy?
There are two major types of prostate brachytherapy: permanent seed implantation or low dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy and temporary seed implantation or high dose rate brachytherapy (HDR). At Penn Medicine, we exclusively offer high dose rate brachytherapy.
HDR involves placing various temporary applicators such as catheters (hollow tubes) inside the patient under general anesthesia. Using ultrasound based planning, a radioactive source temporarily delivers radiation treatment to the tumor through these hollow tubes. This allows delivery of a high dose of radiation to a much smaller area than possible with external beam radiation therapy. Once the treatment is complete, the applicators are removed and the patient is able to travel home free of radioactivity.
Advantages of High Dose Rate Brachytherapy
There are many advantages to brachytherapy treatment when compared to external beam radiation.
- Shorter treatment period
- Fewer or more mild side effects
- No downtime required after treatment
- Therapy delivered on an outpatient basis
- As effective as surgery or external beam radiation for certain cancers
- The patient poses no radiation exposure risk to family members, children or pregnant women
Types of Cancer Treated with Brachytherapy