ABSTRACT
Brachytherapy (from the Greek brachy, meaning “short”) is the form of radiotherapy where a radioactive source is placed inside or near the target volume requiring treatment. Example organ sites that are treated with low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy are prostate (Nag et al. 1999, 2001), breast (Pignol et al. 2009), lung (Trombetta et al. 2008; Mutyala et al. 2010), eye (Jensen et al. 2005; Rivard and Melhus 2009), brain (Fernandez et al. 1995; Chen et al. 2007), and liver (Armstrong, Anderson, and Harrison 1994; Zhang et al. 2009). Some cases of esophageal cancer (Okawa et al. 1999) and gynecological cancer (McGuire, Frank, and Eifel 2008) treatment have also been reported. Of note, prostate is the most common site for LDR brachytherapy where sealed radioactive sources (“seeds”) are implanted permanently. Two commonly used isotopes are 125I and 103Pd.
