Endobronchial brachytherapy and external-beam radiotherapy in patients with endobronchial obstruction and extrabronchial extension

High dose rate endobronchial brachytherapy in the management of lung cancer: Response and toxicity evaluation in 158 patients

“…We obtained a 77% endoscopic response rate and observed excellent improvement for all symptoms with a 7-month median survival rate. Similar results were reported by several other investigators [1,11,[13][14] using combined ERT and HDR-EB. Zajac et al reported a 74% endoscopic improvement and an 82% symptomatic improvement with similar radiotherapy doses [13].…”

“…The results of this prospective trial have been published elsewhere [11]. For this study, we re-evaluated this patient population in terms of palliation of symptoms.…”

“…ERT is the initial treatment modality for palliation of incurable lung cancer; however, combined treatment with HDR-EB provides better symptomatic relief in patients with disease that has an endobronchial component [1,4,[11][12][13][14]. In the previously untreated group, we used 30 Gy ERT initially to the bulky disease and then 2 fractions of 7.5 Gy HDR-EB to the endobronchial component.…”

Treatment of Recurrent Bronchial Carcinoma: The Role of High-Dose-Rate Endoluminal Brachytherapy

“…Four other patients had gross residual or recurrent disease at last follow-up, and 1 remaining patient died from pulmonary artery laceration during follow-up (16). Several other authors reported no cases of fatal hemoptysis (3,21,22). In this study, fatal hemorrhage occurred in 6 cases and only once within the first weeks after HDREB.…”

American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and American College of Radiology (ACR) Practice Guideline for the Performance of High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy

“…In some cases it can be used in conjunction with external beam radiotherapy in definitive cases (28,29), and in the definitive treatment of primary tracheal carcinomas (30). More commonly, HDR brachytherapy has a well-established role in the palliation of primary and recurrent endobronchial lesions (31)(32)(33)(34).…”