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Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer Treatment



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Brachytherapy is a precise form of high-dose radiation therapy. It can effectively treat intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancers. Radiation oncologist Kara Romano, MD, explains the benefits of this procedure as offered at UVA Health.

Find out more at: https://uvahealth.com/services/prostate-cancer/high-dose-brachytherapy

Transcript

My name is Kara Romano and I'm a physician in the department of radiation oncology here at the University of Virginia.

Brachytherapy is where we place the source of radiation right next to or inside of what we want to treat. Brachytherapy can be used in a number of different cancers, but the most common is for a genital urinary cancer, specifically prostate cancer, and in gynecologic cancers for postoperatively, for endometrial cancer, or for cervical cancer.

It's a very powerful tool because we know that patients' outcomes are typically better in cervical cancer if they receive brachytherapy as part of their treatment. Brachytherapy procedures can be delivered either under general anesthesia with mild sedation or sometimes with no sedation at all.

One of the benefits of brachytherapy is that we're able to provide a very high dose to the area we're treating with very low dose to the surrounding tissues. And if we're able to get the lowest dose possible to those surrounding normal tissues, we know that we're able to preserve a better quality of life for our patients.

Brachytherapy at the University of Virginia is delivered in our Emily Couric Cancer Center. We're fortunate to have a comprehensive, dedicated brachytherapy suite where we're fully equipped for anesthesia procedures.

And we actually have a CT scanner on rails, which means that we have our procedure table where we're able to place applicators and deliver the treatment. We have a CT scanner that comes over the table so we can customize the treatment specific to a patient's anatomy, their body.

We have an incredible team of brachytherapy specialists, from the physicians, the physicists, dosimetrist, and brachytherapy nurses that help to walk patients through each step of the way.
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