High-dose-rate vs. low-dose-rate interstitial brachytherapy boost for anal canal cancers

High dose rate brachytherapy in the management of anal cancer: A review

“…Mean rate of LF across 9 studies was 12.3% (SD 3.6%, range: 8% À 18%). [16,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] In the study by Varela Cagetti et al rate of LF was similar in patients undergoing HDR or LDR brachytherapy (8% and 10%, respectively, p = 0.73) [20] Oehler-Janne et al did not find a significant difference in 5-year LF among patients who underwent BT boost (10.3%) compared to those who received EBRT (15.4%), even though there were more failures in cohort not receiving BT [16].…”

“…Survival outcomes were reported in six studies with total of 226 patients, Table 4. [16,19,20,22,24,26] The mean of median follow up was 41.5 months (SD 16 months, R 24 -61 months).…”

“…Five studies reported DFS for 219 patients, all treated with brachytherapy in combination with EBRT and chemo [16,19,20,22,23] The weighted mean 5-year DFS was 77.5 % (SD 3.12, R 70% À 82%). Two studies reported 2-and 3-year DFS of 87.7% (SE 8.25%), and 80%, respectively [23,26] None of the studies provided further information regarding additional local or systemic therapies.…”

“…Four studies reported 5-year OS ranging from 74% to 93% [16,19,20,22]. Weighed mean 5-year OS among 180 patients included in these 4 studies was 81.9%.…”

Radioactive Iodine-125 in Tumor Therapy: Advances and Future Directions

“…Furthermore, shorter-lived radionuclides are more versatile for achieving reasonable clinical results for a wide range of tumor types, the theoretically derived optimum half-lives typically range from around 0-5 days for fast-repopulating tumors to approximately 14-50 days for slow-growing tumors (45). Notably, given the increasing reports of HDR irradiation equivalent to LDR treatments, HDR-BT (usually with dose rate above 12 Gy/h) may have an advantage over LDR-BT for rapidly growing tumors with increasing capacity for cellular repair (46)(47)(48).…”