Influence of dose rate on local control of breast carcinoma treated by external beam irradiation plus iridium 192 implant

Pulse Frequency in Pulsed Brachytherapy Based on Tissue Repair Kinetics

“…Biological effects of PB are, therefore, often compared to those after CLDR irradiation with equal overall treatment time. Because of decaying source activity, patients treated with a new LDR source are irradiated at higher dose rates than patients treated later with the same source, leading to a range in dose rates and, hence, exposure times (43,44). Analysis of our own patient data showed a dose rate ranging from 0.35 to 1.20 Gy/h (mean 0.80 Gy/h).…”

How to Optimize Therapeutic Ratio in Brachytherapy of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma?

“…From 1971 to 1983, 398 biopsy-proven adenocarcinomas of the breast were definitively managed by radiotherapy. The breast and regional nodes received 45 Gy 60 Co in 25 fractions over 5 weeks (28,29). Electrons were used to deliver a further 15 Gy/7/1.5 weeks to the internal mammary chain and 25 Gy/11/2.5 weeks to the lower axilla.…”

Breast Boost – Why, How, When ...?

“…Therefore the indication for the breast boost remains uncertain. In most centers the boost is performed routinely, mostly independent of clinical criteria [4,8,14,25,30,40,41,43]. Today the indication of a boost should depend on clinical and morphologic criteria.…”

“…An increasing number of papers have dealt with the boost over the past decades [1,4,9,16,22,25,35,48]. An excellent overview is given by Fowble et al [10].…”

“…An excellent overview is given by Fowble et al [10]. Most of the publications of retrospective data describe an increase in the local control rate after boost applications [5,17,24,25,28,32,43,50]. There are, however, only 2 prospective randomized trials: Romestaign et al [34] published data from Lyon, France, which showed an increase in local control and an increase in survival compared to patients with no boost.…”