| Brachytherapy is a form of
radiotherapy where a radioactive source is placed inside or next
to the lesion requiring treatment. Brachytherapy is commonly
used to treat localized prostate cancer, cancer of cervix, and
endobronchial lung cancer. Brachy is from a Greek word for
"short", so brachytherapy roughly translated is short distance
therapy. The dose of irradiation falls off rapidly as the distance
from the source increases, in accordance with inverse square law.
Brachytherapy was the first method by which irradiation was
applied therapeutically. It was first used to treat benign hairy
naevus in 1897, just two years after Roentgen discovered xrays and
one year after Curies discovered radium. By 1904, Danlos was
regularly treating skin lesions with brachytherapy.
Brachytherapy treats only a small volume of tissue. It avoids
damaging effects on surrounding normal tissue. It has been shown
to be effective at controlling local disease and can be used in
conjunction with other modalities of therapy.
If you have questions related to this article you may e-mail me
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About the author
DR SOON is a medical practitioner. He holds four degrees. MBBS
(University of Malaya), MBA (University of East Asia), LLB (Hons)
(University of Wolverhampton), Master of Medicine (Edith Cowan
University
:
Dr SOON is the owner of AskMyVisitor.com and MyScriptDoctor.com
where you can find the most up-to-date advice and information
on
many medical, health and lifestyle topics.
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