Hi everyone,

I was diagnosed with a scc on my upper lip in December, the ENT Dr's I saw prescribed interstitial brachytherapy or radical surgery as treatment.
I had the consultation with the radiotherapy Dr on Thursday about the brachytherapy.
I have found and read a reasonable amount of info on brachytherapy but would really like to hear from others who has had it.
They are proposing high dose brachytherapy administered 2 X a day through 2 catheters inserted into my lip and a week stay in hospital.
I have a PET scan on Tuesday as there are a couple of enlarged lymph nodes (hoping it's nothing) then I'm scheduled to go in for brachytherapy on Sunday 25th Jan
So anyone had brachytherapy?

Welcome to OCF. Im sorry you have the need for our group but this is the right place to be. In the US, brachytherapy is not the most common type of radiation treatment but we do have members who have done brachy. Im sure someone with brachy experience will come along and comment soon. Being in another country, treatment protocols may be different than what they are here in the US.

Best wishes!

Thanks Christine, seems to get used alot for prostate and breast cancer, still haven't found any personal experiences for it's use for oral although info that I've read says it gets used alot for oral cancer.
I will for sure post my experience as it may help someone else.

Brachytherapy is actually over 100 years old. I had a newer form of Brachytherapy, your type is too, called, HIgh Dose Rate Intraopertive Radiation Therapy (HDR-IORT), twice, a year apart, to the cervical neck, which is done during surgery in a shielded OR, after maximum resection, which uses the same remoteafterloader device, some look like R2-D2, with iridium 192 radiation source, as HDR-Brachytherapy does, but differed in several ways. Mine was done with one high dose directly to the exposed tumor bed, as a radiation boost, which was followed by external beam radiation with IMRT, several weeks later. HDR-Brachtherapy can also be done as monthotherapy, or in addition too surgery and or with EBRT, and is usually done in several sessions in one or two days.

Good luck with everything, and look forward to your posts. Several other members here had brachytherapy also.

Paul,
thankyou for your reply, did you have any side effects from it? And what about after?

It's difficult to say what the side effects were/are being it wasn't my first line of treatment, had prior radiation, and was done along with and already had other surgeries, so I'm sure all had an impact. As far as short term, immediately after, I would say it was minimal, compared to IMRT, but had swelling, redness for several weeks. All radiation treatments have short term toxicities, less than 3 months, and long term, more than 3 months.

Maybe this is some help.

http://www.cancer.gov/publications/patient-education/brachytherapy.pdf

http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/pdf/brachy.pdf

Thanks for the links . Just over a week to go, til I go in for treatment. (January 25th) My PET scan was clear thankfully , so no lymph nodes involved.
I will post with my experience.