Has anyone had any expierence with Brachytherapy? My little brother is scheduled to begin this type of radiation in about 4 weeks? Thank you in advance for all comments.

It's not done everywhere, and only in experienced places or rather should be. I had a newer type, similar to brachytherapy, called HD-IORT, High Dose Rate Intraoperstive Radiation Therapy. What type question do you have? There are several types of brachytherapy, Low Dose Rate, LDR, High Dose Rate, and are sometimes used as a boost dose with IMRT. Several members here had Brachtherapy, who may be able to answer your questions better.

Good luck.

Several members have been thru brachytherapy. I have a good friend who doesnt stop by the forum very often but she went thru it. Use the search feature with typing the word brachytherapy. You should get several results to read about it. Or try using the main OCF pages.

[quote=PaulB]It's not done everywhere, and only in experienced places or rather should be. I had a newer type, similar to brachytherapy, called HD-IORT, High Dose Rate Intraoperstive Radiation Therapy. What type question do you have? There are several types of brachytherapy, Low Dose Rate, LDR, High Dose Rate, and are sometimes used as a boost dose with IMRT. Several members here had Brachtherapy, who may be able to answer your questions better.

Good luck. [/quote]

Paul he is doing high dose. Will my brother still produce saliva? Is brachytherapy a good option?

ak, Im sorry but not many have info on this subject. Unfortunately none of us are doctors or in the medical professiona so its not easy to help guide anyone thru this. Brachytherapy is not as common as IMRT, not many facilities even offer it. I wish I was able to help you with this but Im not qualified to give an opinion on this. Hopefully someone who has been thru Brachy will be along to respond.

[quote=ChristineB]ak, Im sorry but not many have info on this subject. Unfortunately none of us are doctors or in the medical professiona so its not easy to help guide anyone thru this. Brachytherapy is not as common as IMRT, not many facilities even offer it. I wish I was able to help you with this but Im not qualified to give an opinion on this. Hopefully someone who has been thru Brachy will be along to respond.[/quote]

Thank you for your response Christine! I really appreciate it. I will have to talk to his doctor.

Hi AK,

I had RT in 2006 and before I began treatment I consulted with two radiation oncologist - one was at a major cancer center in Philadelphia PA area and the other was at my local hospital (which is where I ended up having treatment).

We questioned both medical teams about brachytherapy and neither recommended it for me. Since it was so long ago, I don't recall all the specifics about it other than regular RT covers a broader area (in my case tongue, jaw and neck), whereas I believe in brachytherapy the radiated field is more concentrated. There are pros and cons for both options, but this needs to be discussed with his doctors.

I'm not a doctor nor do I have any type of medical degree so I'm only telling you what I can remember from 2006.

Is your brother having a neck dissection? If so, I would think the decision on type of RT should be made after the neck dissection. If any of the lymph nodes come back positive for cancer, I would be surprised and alarmed if the doctor did not recommend "regular" RT which should radiate the neck area also.

As others have said, this is not a very common treatment for oral cancer. The only OC patients I recall having this had already had radiation and then a recurrence.

Your brother is lucky to have you as a sister. Wishing him the best!

Hi, I had brachytherapy done about 2010. I had several tongue recurrences of SCC
before that but none after. It was weird, but appeared to work!

Woot! Cindy so glad to hear!!!