Riverside Cancer Institute Now Offering Brachytherapy

Advancements in cancer treatment are evolving daily. This is especially true at Riverside Cancer Institute, which is now offering Brachytherapy, a form of radiation therapy used to treat various types of cancer, including but not limited to uterine, vaginal, cervical, and skin cancers.

Unlike traditional external beam radiation, Brachytherapy involves placing a radioactive source directly on or inside the tumor or target. This allows for a highly effective and targeted treatment that minimizes radiation damage to healthy tissues surrounding or abutting a tumor.

“The Brachytherapy program at Riverside is the first in the region,” said Dr. Issra Rashed, Radiation Oncologist with Riverside Cancer Institute. “We are excited to provide this new technology in combination with our exemplary expertise and existing state-of-the-art technology to ensure our communities have access to comprehensive cancer care.”

The procedure is typically performed using tiny radioactive pellets or seeds placed on the tumor with applicators or inserted into the tumor through needles and catheters. Historically, Brachytherapy used to involve a more permanent or long-duration implant – called low-dose rate (LDR Brachytherapy) – with long treatment times and patients being radioactive for a period of time after treatment. This is something that has fallen out of mainstream practice once a newer form of Brachytherapy – termed high-dose rate (HDR Brachytherapy) – came into practice.

With HDR Brachytherapy, treatment is markedly shorter on the order of minutes. Furthermore, patients are not radioactive after HDR Brachytherapy treatment and can resume normal activities between treatments.

One of the key advantages of Brachytherapy is its physical properties. The radionuclides used in HDR Brachytherapy deliver high doses of radiation quickly and directly to the cancer cells utilizing a radioactive source in which the dose of radiation rapidly decays with distance. It is because of this that the radiation then is predominately confined to the tumor/target and its immediate vicinity.

This very localized treatment approach can mean less radiation exposure to more distant healthy tissues, limiting the complication rates and increasing the recovery times.

For more information, call (815) 933-9660 or visit myrhc.net/cancer. For a podcast on the subject, tune into Conversations on Cancer.