Image Guided Brachytherapy – IGBT

Siemens Healthineers

A New Vision for Cancer Treatment: Image Guided Brachytherapy

“IGBT is a highly personalized and fine-tuned method for treating cancer that can help improve survival rates in many types of cancer, while lowering the risk of complications,” said Gustavo Sarria Bardales, Medical Director of the Radiation Therapy Department at Auna Oncosalud hospital in Peru. “With the rise in cancer cases worldwide, the use of IGBT offers safe, effective and quality treatment against some prevalent cancers, such as breast, prostate and cervical cancers. Further developing and implementing this technology is a great opportunity to expand access for more patients and provide them with effective care.”

The advantages of IGBT are:

  1. More accurate treatment distribution throughout the targeted area
  2. Reduced risk of injury to healthy tissues
  3. The ability to treat a wide variety of cancer lesions such as those that are:
    a) Deep in the body
    b) Adjacent to blood vessels
    c) Too large for other treatment techniques

STAGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGE GUIDED BRACHYTHERAPY:

1913 – Octave Pasteau‘s publication describing the insertion of a radium capsule into the prostatic urethra to treat carcinoma of the prostate.

PIONEERS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMAGE GUIDED BRACHYTHERAPY:

‘The history of interstitial brachytherapy of the prostate began in 1917 when Barringer inserted radium needles transperineally into the prostate, guided by a finger in the rectum.’

‘In 1952, Flocks et al. injected radioactive gold solution in prostatic cancer during open operation.’

‘In 1972, Whitmore et al. described retropubic Iodine-125 seed implantation through an open operation with pelvic lymph node dissection. ‘

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9358590/

RESOURCES:

https://www.gynecologiconcology-online.net/article/S0090-8258(18)31068-0/abstract

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51573652_Implementation_of_Image-guided_Brachytherapy_for_Cervix_Cancer_in_the_UK_Progress_Update

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5018521/

https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/long-term-outcome-of-ctbased-imageguided-brachytherapy-for-cervix-cancer-using-the-tandemring-applicator-2167-7964.S1-003.php?aid=29708

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9358590/

https://www.nature.com/articles/4500873

https://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0378-48352004000700002

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachytherapy

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-61691-9