Three-dimensional dosimetry of the full and empty bladder in high dose rate vaginal cuff brachytherapy.

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to assess the bladder doses during vaginal cuff brachytherapy and to examine the effect of bladder filling on normal tissue dosimetry by means of computed tomography.

Materials And Methods: A total number of 45 women were enrolled in a prospective clinical trial. Patients were treated with the application of a single-line source vaginal cylinder.

[Pulsed dose brachytherapy--a review of clinical applications in the treatment of gynecological malignancies].

Pulsed Dose Rate (PDR) treatment is a new brachytherapy modality that combines physical advantages of High-Dose-Rate (HDR) technology (isodose optimization, radiation safety) with the radiobiological advantages of Low-Dose-Rate (LDR) brachytherapy. Pulsed brachytherapy consists of using a stronger radiation source than for LDR brachytherapy and is giving a series of short exposures of 10 to 30 minutes in every hour to approximately the same total dose in the same overall as with the LDR. Modern afterloading equipment offers some advantages over interstitial or intracavitary insertion of separate needles, tubes, seeds or wires.