ABSTRACT
Introduction Restenosis remains the major limitation of percutaneous, catheter-based interventional therapy. Endovascular radiation therapy, also known as vascular brachytherapy, represents a relatively new and promising tool to overcome this limitation. Brachytherapy is derived from the Greek ‘brachy’ (meaning ‘short’) and ‘therapy’ and describes the application of radioactivity by a sealed source at a very short distance to the target tissue, e.g. by intracavitary or interstitial source placement. It has the benefit that very high doses of radiation can be delivered almost directly to the target. Radiation therapy has been proven successful in the treatment of hypertrophic scars, keloids, heterotopic bone formation, ophthalmic pterygia and solid malignancies.
