Protocol for the measurement of the absorbed dose rate to water for a planar P beta emitting brachytherapy source: A multi-institutional validation.

Purpose: This is a multi-institutional report on inter-observer and inter-instrument variation in the calibration of the absorbed dose rate for a planar P beta emitting brachytherapy source. Measurement accuracy is essential since the dose profile is steep and the source is used for the treatment of tumors that are located in close proximity to healthy nervous system structures.

Methods And Materials: An RIC-100 P source was calibrated by three institutions using their own equipment and following their standard procedures.

Brachytherapy as an Adjuvant for Recurrent Atypical and Malignant Meningiomas.

Background: Recurrent atypical and malignant meningiomas have poor outcomes with surgical therapy alone. Neither adjuvant chemotherapy nor postoperative radiation therapy remedies this problem.

Objective: To evaluate our experience with the treatment of 15 patients treated with I-125 or Cs-131 brachytherapy radiation seeds as an adjuvant in these difficult cases.

Accelerated partial breast irradiation with low-dose-rate interstitial implant brachytherapy after wide local excision: 12-year outcomes from a prospective trial.

Purpose: To evaluate the long-term toxicity, cosmesis, and local control of accelerated partial breast irradiation with implant brachytherapy after wide local excision for Stage T1N0 breast cancer (BCa).

Materials And Methods: Between 1997 and 2001, 50 patients with Stage T1N0M0 BCa were treated in a Phase I-II protocol using low-dose-rate accelerated partial breast irradiation with implant brachytherapy after wide local excision and lymph node surgery. The total dose was escalated in three groups: 50 Gy (n = 20), 55 Gy (n = 17), and 60 Gy (n = 13).

New life after prostate brachytherapy? Considering the fertile female partner of the brachytherapy patient.

Objectives: To examine several cases of unusual and unexpected pregnancy in the female partners of men treated with brachytherapy for cancer of the prostate.

Patients And Methods: Self-reported pregnancy of partners of patients who had had prostate brachytherapy was assessed. The dosimetry to the testicles and sperm counts were used to examine the feasibility of pregnancy in the partners.

Intraoperative dural irradiation by customized 192iridium and 90yttrium brachytherapy plaques.

Purpose: After vertebral or paravertebral tumor resection, tumor cells may remain on the dura. Because a tumoricidal dose is difficult to achieve using external beam radiotherapy without exceeding the spinal cord tolerance, we developed intraoperative applicators to deliver additional dose to the dura.

Methods And Materials: Eight patients with vertebral or paravertebral tumor underwent conformal external beam radiotherapy, tumor resection, and intraoperative radiotherapy to the dura involved by tumor.

Dose-volume analysis of radiotherapy for T1N0 invasive breast cancer treated by local excision and partial breast irradiation by low-dose-rate interstitial implant.

Purpose: To evaluate the toxicity of partial breast irradiation (RT) using escalating doses of low-dose-rate interstitial implant as the sole adjuvant local therapy for selected T1N0 breast cancer patients treated by wide local excision. The results of a European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer study have demonstrated a significant local control benefit using external beam RT to 65 Gy compared with 50 Gy. Thus, the tolerance of escalating doses of partial breast RT should be determined, because this approach may become a standard treatment for patients with early-stage breast cancer.