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New radiation therapy offers fewer treatments with better results

One of the drawbacks of radiation therapy can be the damage it can cause to surrounding, non-diseased tissue. But a relatively new and innovative cancer treatment method, High-Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy, minimizes that damage by pinpointing the treatment area.

This treatment is now available in St. Charles County only at the H.W. Koenig Cancer Center at SSM St. Joseph Health Center, a leader in cancer diagnosis and treatment. It has been approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), a group of five commissioners appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to, among other duties, develop regulations governing nuclear reactor and reactor material safety. Each HDR site must be approved by the NRC prior to treatment delivery.

“High-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy involves placing a protected source of high-energy radiation directly within the tumor by using radioactive plaques, needles, tubes or wires,” says Gregg Dickerson, M.D., radiation oncologist at the H.W. Koenig Cancer Center and Missouri Cancer Care, PC. “The radioactive materials are placed over the surface of the tumor, implanted within the tumor or placed within a body cavity surrounded by the tumor in order to treat the cancerous tissue.”

The use of HDR brachytherapy allows doctors to deliver equivalent doses of radiation used in low-dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy, but in a short series (2 to 3 hours each) of outpatient procedures. The LDR procedure places radioactive materials inside the body for extended periods of time, thus creating a higher risk of affecting nondiseased tissue and exposing caregivers to radiation.

Dr. Dickerson, who is trained and experienced in numerous areas of radiation oncology including HDR brachytherapy, says HDR treatment is used to treat cancers of the cervix, uterus, vagina, lung, prostate, esophagus and common bile duct.

The MammoSite® Radiation Therapy System, also available at St. Joseph Health Center, is a five-day Targeted Radiation Therapy (TRT) system used to treat early stages of breast cancer with accelerated partial breast radiation (APBR). A balloon catheter is placed within the breast at the position of the excised tumor by the surgeon during a lumpectomy. The HDR source is then placed into the balloon catheter for treatment.

This treatment is delivered on an outpatient basis for one week, and then the catheter is removed. This method of therapy delivers radiation directly into the tumor site from the inside out, so that most of the normal breast tissue is not exposed to high doses of radiation.

APBR gives women, who are candidates for the treatment, the option for breast conservation through the avoidance of extensive breast removal and disfigurement associated with a mastectomy.

“This method is appealing especially to women who find the six- to seven-week course of daily radiation a hardship,” says Dr. Dickerson. “Life can continue with much less interruption by using accelerated partial breast radiation.”