Brachytherapy Treatment of Mesothelioma

Brachytherapy treatment is a very advanced form of radiotherapy and has been used by the doctors for quite sometime now in the treatment of cancer. In almost 40% of the cases of cancer the radiotherapy is advised as a part of the treatment. This number also includes the patients of mesothelioma. In general the radiotherapy involves the use of ionizing radiations like X-rays to treat the cancer by focusing the beam on the cancer cells and killing them in the process. Brachytherapy is one form of radiotherapy and is in fact the latest form of radiotherapy.

In brachytherapy the radioactive material is placed inside the body of the patient. The radioactive tissue is placed either inside the cancer tissue or closer to it. In fact the term brachy means 'short' which implies that the therapy is carried out from a small distance. The radioactive material emits the ionization rays that kill the cancerous cells within the cancerous tissues. A very important fact about brachytherapy is that the radioactive material only destroys the cells which are within the radius of 1 cm. Hence when the radioactive material is placed inside the cancer cell or near to it then only the cancerous cells are destroyed and not the normal and healthy cells. Some of the radioactive materials that are used in the therapy are the iridium 192, iodine 131, palladium 103, and iodine 125.

There are mainly two types of brachytherapy:

(1) Temporary Brachytherapy: In this type of brachytherapy, the radioactive substance is placed inside the cancerous tissue for a specific period of time. Once that period is over the radioactive material is then removed from the affected region.

(2) Permanent Brachytherapy: In permanent brachytherapy the radioactive material is implanted in the cancerous tissue permanently. The size of the radioactive material used is very small. The radioactive material continues to emit the radioactive rays that completely destroy the cancerous cells. After some time the radioactive substance stops emitting any radiation and remains inside the body.

In comparison to other types of radiation therapies, the method of brachytherapy has least side effects. Some of the side effects of this therapy are the pain and soreness at the site of the therapy, there could also be some swelling and bleeding from the site.

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