High Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy

High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy is a way to deliver radiation therapy by placing a radioactive source next to the cancer or where the cancer used to be. This treatment is effective for gynecologic cancers such as cancer of the cervix and cancers of the uterus. It is also used for certain kinds of lung cancers where the tumor is close to or blocking the major airways of the lung. A novel approach to giving radiation for breast cancer also uses HDR brachytherapy and is known as MammoSite®.

HDR brachytherapy involves a machine that has a radioactive source, connected by a catheter, within it. A guide catheter or tube is placed in the patient to pass close to the area that needs to be treated. The radioactive source passes through this tube and stops when it is in the area that needs to receive treatment. Because the radiation is in that area only, higher doses of radiation are able to be given with less damage to the normal tissue in the area. In the case of Mammosite® for breast cancer it also allows the treatment time to be shortened tremendously. While normal radiation therapy would require a woman to come for treatment daily for about seven weeks, with MammoSite®, women are treated twice a day for five days.