ABSTRACT
Brachytherapy is an exciting and beneficial treatment modality that has grown over the past decade with numerous technological developments. This chapter provides a brief review of the following: a description of standard-of-care sources and loading technologies currently available, emerging technologies that are being examined in research settings and by clinical innovators, and the developments in brachytherapy source calibrations to bring emerging technologies into the mainstream. Today, there are five vendors of high-dose rate (HDR) and two of pulsed-dose rate (PDR) high-energy remote afterloading systems. Elekta Brachytherapy has two remote afterloading systems. The microSelectron Digital system can contain an HDR Ir or PDR Ir source, and can be configured with 6, 18, or 30 channels for connecting to brachytherapy applicators or catheters/needles. Varian Medical Systems has two remote afterloading systems. The newest company to provide a commercial offering for radionuclide-based HDR remote afterloaders is Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG. They offer the following three systems: GyneSource, MultiSource, and SagiNova.
