High-dose-rate afterloading intraluminal brachytherapy for advanced inoperable rectal carcinoma

Twenty-year experience in the management of squamous cell anal canal carcinoma with interstitial brachytherapy

“…A range of 8-36 Gy for brachytherapy boost has been used in prior studies with an incontinence grade 1-2 from 3% to 18% [23,24]. The heterogeneity of the treatment techniques, doses and fractionations, however, would not allow comparable sets to be obtained.…”

High-dose-rate intraluminal brachytherapy during preoperative chemoradiation for locally advanced rectal cancers

“…The major advantage of HDR-ILBT over external beam irradiation is its rapid fall-off; a high dose can be delivered to the tumor without significantly affecting the adjacent normal tissues. HDR-ILBT for advanced or inoperable tumors of the rectum has been used both palliatively and to dose escalate after chemoradiation for curative treatment [18] .…”

Are there alternatives to radical surgery in rectal cancer?

“…Objective local tumor response was seen in 41 of 48 assessable patients (85%), 28 (58%) of whom had a complete response and 13 (27%) of whom had a partial response with more than 50% regression. High symptomatic response rates were seen, especially for the control of rectal bleeding, for which there was a complete response rate of 63% (33 patients, 8 treated palliatively and 25 treated radically) and a partial response rate of 12% (6 patients) [52]. Coatmeur et al [48] demonstrated similarly good local control rates of 83% for T1 tumors in a retrospective series of 124 patients.…”

“…This series was updated recently to include 79 patients, 52 of whom received intraluminal brachytherapy as radical therapy either as monotherapy (16 patients) or as a boost after the completion of CRT (36 patients) [52]. Objective local tumor response was seen in 41 of 48 assessable patients (85%), 28 (58%) of whom had a complete response and 13 (27%) of whom had a partial response with more than 50% regression.…”