Skip to main content

Brachytherapy for Treatment of Mesothelioma

Brachytherapy is a form of radiotherapy and is an advanced form of treatment for mesothelioma. It has been used for over a century for the treatment of mesothelioma.

Radiotherapy is used to treat mesothelioma by ionizing radiation, thus killing cancer cells. Radiotherapy can be performed internally or externally. When radiotherapy is performed externally the radiation is put into the body from an object outside the body, which is usually called a linear accelerator.

When radiotherapy is performed internally radiation is put inside the body. Internal radiotherapy can also be called brachytherapy. "Brachy" comes from the Greek word for "short range." The radiation is put into the body at short range, thus, brachytherapy. Some other names for internal radiotherapy are sealed source radiotherapy, seed implantation radiotherapy or endocurietherapy.

The radiation is placed either inside the cancer source or very close to it. The radiation that is placed inside emits radiation killing the cancerous cells but can only kill up to a one inch diameter, so the radiation must be placed close to the cancerous site.

There are two different types of brachytherapy:

- temporary brachytherapy - permanent brachytherapy

Temporary brachytherapy consists of placing the radioactive seeds (radiation) inside the body and then taking them out after a certain amount of time.

Permanent brachytherapy consists of placing the radioactive seeds inside the body and leaving them. The radioactive seeds actually stop emitting radiation after a certain amount of time but lay in the body causing no problems.

There are actually teams of people who administer the brachytherapy. Among this team are a radiation oncologist, a radiation physicist, a radiation therapist, and the person who manually does the procedure.

The radiation oncologist decides the area to be treated and the overall treatment plan, the radiation physicist decides the best equipment to be used to infuse the radiation, the dosimetrist decides the dosage to be given and helps in distributing the dose and the radiation therapist operates the equipment that administers the radiation.

Brachytherapy is considered to be a safer method of treatment for mesothelioma than other treatments for the cancer, but there are side effects of this procedure. Right after the procedure there is soreness at the site of the radiation there may also be swelling in the same area. Short-term side effects are soreness and bleeding at the site but generally only last a few days.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why You Need A Lawsuit Asbestos Lawyer

The number of asbestos lawsuits filed and the number of asbestos lawsuit lawyers who will take up an asbestos lawsuit case are a sad reflection of a long-time construction mistake that may lead to the ill health of over 250,000 Americans by the year 2020. If you think you may have been exposed to asbestos without proper protective filter masks, you may be entitled to file a lawsuit with the help of an asbestos lawyer. A natural, fibrous form of a number of minerals, asbestos was used since ancient times in fabrics because of its durability and fireproofing ability. For over seventy years, asbestos was used in the insulation of and as fireproofing material in numerous buildings. Over 30 millions tons of asbestos in America alone made its way into the walls of commercial buildings, home, schools, shipyards, and industrial sites. Construction workers labored with asbestos without protection. In the 1970s, however, the medical community, faced with an overwhelming number of construction ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are Mesothelioma Cancers? An Overview Of Mesothelioma Cancers

 What are Mesothelioma Cancers? Mesothelioma cancers are the cancers that spread in the mesothelium tissues. Mesothelium in general is the name of tissue that forms lining of different body organs such as heart, lungs, abdomen and reproductive organs. The lining around abdominal organs is known as peritoneal membrane. Lining around lungs is called pleural membrane while the lining around heart is called pericardium. These linings perform two functions. They protect the internal organs by producing a lubricating fluid and to allow the smooth movement of the internal organs. Mesothelioma cancers are the cancers affecting these membranes. The names of the cancers depend on the tissue or linings they affect. Peritoneal mesothelioma, pleural mesothelioma and pericardial mesothelioma are the names of cancers of linings of abdomen, lungs and heart, respectively. Pleural mesothelioma is the most common of all mesothelioma cancers and is found in 70 % of the mesothelioma patients. Pe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mesothelioma EPIDEMIOLOGY

While an association of malignant, mesotheliomas with radiation or zeolite exposure, severe pulmonary disease, recurrent diverticulosis, and even one case of lipoid aspiration pneumonia has been reported, asbestos remains the most frequent etiologic cause with contact documented in perhaps half of all patients with malignant pleural and peritoneal primaries. While only one of the first 13 cases of malignant testicular mesothelioma reported in the literature involved an asbestos-exposed individual, 3 of the 4 most recently described cases had been heavily exposed. To date, asbestos does not appear to be implicated in the etiology of benign mesotheliomas of any site or of malignant pericardial primaries. The association of asbestos contact and an excess risk of bronchogenic cancer had been established in 1955 by Doll, although case reports first appeared as early as 1935. The role of asbestos in the etiology of mesothelioma was first convincingly documented by Wagner et al. in 1960. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more