Treatment of non-small cell lung cancer with external beam radiotherapy and high dose rate brachytherapy

Place of cryotherapy, brachytherapy and photodynamic therapy in therapeutic bronchoscopy of lung cancers

“…Brachytherapy can also be used as an endobronchial boost to EBRT [41][42][43][44][45]. HDR brachytherapy has been primarily used for previously untreated patients in conjunction with EBRT, often to quickly relieve obstruction and to reduce the volume of irradiated normal lung tissue.…”

Lung Cancer Brachytherapy: Robotics-Assisted Minimally Invasive Approach

“…Response to brachytherapy was assessed by bronchoscopy 1-3 months from completion of treatment. As expected, initial patient performance status, tumour size and stage, and radiation dose are important predictors of outcome [22,26,28]. Aygun and colleagues [22] observed that response rates favour patients with tumours not visible radiographically.…”

“…As expected, initial patient performance status, tumour size and stage, and radiation dose are important predictors of outcome [22,26,28]. Aygun and colleagues [22] observed that response rates favour patients with tumours not visible radiographically. Higher combined doses of brachytherapy and external beam radiation have been associated with an increased endobronchial response.…”

“…The experience of HDR brachytherapy boost is extensive in the literature [21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Patients selected for definitive external beam radiation and a brachytherapy boost were usually medically fit patients with centrally located stage IIIA or IIIB tumours, without weight loss in 6 months leading up to diagnosis.…”

“…Differentiating treatment complications from tumour progression is often challenging as autopsies have been done in only a small proportion of patients undergoing brachytherapy. For tumours in the mainstem or upper lobe bronchus, there appears to be an increased frequency of hemorrhage for right-sided (25%) as opposed to left-sided lesions (25% and 10%), perhaps due to the proximity of the treatment catheter to the pulmonary artery [22].…”