title: Brachytherapy in the treatment of thoracic tumors. Lung and esophageal.
abstract: Brachytherapy for carcinoma of the lung is most often performed using HDR remote afterloading equipment which delivers the treatment within the tracheal-bronchial tree in an outpatient setting. It provides excellent palliation, rapidly, and can also be selectively used with for curative intent. Permanent implantation using iodine seeds at the time of surgery improves the local control rate for those patients. Esophageal brachytherapy is performed as an intraluminal technique, most often using HDR equipment in an outpatient setting, and is used for palliation as a single modality and as a boost following chemo/radiation for curative patients. In this latter situation, the more aggressive therapy provides significantly better palliation than is possible with single-modality therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Speiser
mesh_terms: D001918:Brachytherapy; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*