Interstitial Prostate Brachytherapy

Prostate brachytherapy has been the subject of heated debate among surgeons and the proponents of the various brachytherapy methods. This very first interdisciplinary book on the subject provides a comprehensive overview of innovations in low dose rate (LDR), high dose rate (HDR), and pulsed dose rate (PDR) interstitial brachytherapy for the management of local or locally advanced prostate cancer. In addition to detailed chapters on patient selection and the use of imaging in diagnostics, treatment guidance, and implantation control, background chapters are included on related medical physics issues such as treatment planning and quality assurance. The results obtained with the different treatment options and the difficult task of salvage treatment are fully discussed. All chapters have been written by internationally recognized experts who for more than a decade have formed the teaching staff responsible for the successful GEC-ESTRO/EAU Prostate Brachytherapy Teaching Course.

Prostate brachytherapy (transperineal interstitial implantation of the prostate with either permanent or temporary radioactive sources) has evolved into a sophisticated and definitive treatment modality, used either as monotherapy or in combination with external beam radiation therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer. This popular form of therapy is frequently integrated with neoadjuvant and/or concurrent androgen suppression therapy in the intermediate and advanced risk patient. This book covers both basic and advanced techniques for prostate brachytherapy and is appropriate for the practitioner who is anticipating or currently performing permanent radioactive seed implants. A partial list of topics includes: patient selection, equipment decisions, treatment planning, operative technique, post-implant evaluation, management of acute/long term treatment and follow-up after implant. The accompanying CD-ROM, with video clips, is an invaluable teaching tool. Basic and Advanced Techniques in Prostate Brachytherapy is for practitioners of prostate brachytherapy-urologists, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists and medical physicists.

Written by the foremost experts in the field, this volume is a comprehensive text and practical reference on contemporary brachytherapy. The book provides detailed, site-specific information on applications and techniques of brachytherapy in the head and neck, central nervous system, breast, thorax, gastrointestinal tract, and genitourinary tract, as well as on gynecologic brachytherapy, low dose rate and high dose rate sarcoma brachytherapy, vascular brachytherapy, and pediatric applications. The book thoroughly describes and compares the four major techniques used in brachytherapy—intracavity, interstitial, surface-dose or mold therapy, and transluminal. Chapters detail particular techniques that are appropriate in specific clinical situations.

This text is a concise handbook designed to assist the clinician in the implementation of Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI). It includes a review of the principles that underlie APBI, a practical and detailed description of each technique for APBI, a review of current clinical results of APBI, and a review of the incidence and management of treatment related complications. The book encompasses a number of different techniques and approaches that include brachytherapy, intraoperative, and external beam techniques. There is currently no single source that describes these techniques and their clinical implementation.

This volume is the first truly international text to take the practitioner from the history, the physical basis, and the rationale of brachytherapy through to the techniques, the results, and the management of complications. It is also the first truly comprehensive and complete textbook of brachytherapy. The chapters on the physics of brachytherapy and the technical planning of internal and surface radiotherapy are designed to enhance the practitioner’s knowledge base and capabilities in this demanding specialty field. Disease site-specific chapters cover a wide range of applications, including ocular tumors, soft tissue sarcomas, cancers of the head and neck, skin, breast, lung, esophagus, and prostate, and gynecologic and anorectal malignancies. Each chapter incorporates the American and European guidelines and the text has been written from both perspectives by many of the most noted global experts in the field. A concluding chapter is devoted to brachytherapy quality assurance.

Prostate brachytherapy (transperineal interstitial implantation of the prostate with either permanent or temporary radioactive sources) has evolved into a sophisticated and definitive treatment modality, used either as monotherapy or in combination with external beam radiation therapy for the definitive treatment of prostate cancer. This popular form of therapy is frequently integrated with neoadjuvant and/or concurrent androgen suppression therapy in the intermediate and advanced risk patient. This book covers both basic and advanced techniques for prostate brachytherapy and is appropriate fo.