Brachytherapy treatment of mesothelioma
Brachytherapy is a high technological and exact radiation treatment of mesothelioma carried out by the implantion of radioactive material close to or directly inside the tumors. This treatment of mesothelioma permits doctors to administration a high and direct radiation dose to the tumors, meanwhile leaving a little damage to the neighbouring cells and tissues. This is very commonly used in the treatment of prostate, cervical, or breast cancer but it can also be effective in the treatment of mesothelioma. This is a comparatively rapid technique which does not need a hospital admission for days and relatively gets completed in about an hour. Thereafter, the implanted material is left in the body and transmittion of radiation continues for about 12 months.
There are two ways through which the radioactive material can be implanted into the body.
The first technique is known as intracavitary treatment, this requires moving the radioactive material through specific containers in certain body cavities as the windpipe, vagina, or the uterus.
The second technique is known as interstitial treatment. This technique of interstitial treatment doesn’t require that radioactive material are moved in containers, but instead it is directly injected into the tumor using thin needles. General anesthesia is usually applied during when using these techniques.
The conclusion as regards which mesothelioma treatments procedures is most convenient for mesothelioma patients, is based on many thing which includes: the site of the mesothelioma, the mesothelioma patients’s health and what kind of mesothelioma treatments undergone before.
Due to brachytherapy being an exact kind of radiation mesothelioma treatments, it may, in some mesothelioma patients cases, be replaced with surgery. Mesothelioma patients undergoing Brachytherapy have usually have a few side effects.