A Study of Patients Receiving High-Dose Rate Brachytherapy

Study Summary

Background: * One standard way of giving radiation is to combine external beam treatments with internal brachytherapy treatments, which involve short-range radiation therapy that gives a high dose of radiation directly to a cancer or to the area where cancer cells were removed. * Brachytherapy is done by placing hollow implant device(s) into the area to be treated and then moving a radiation source into each. The type of device depends on the type of cancer and the site to be treated. These devices can range from hollow applicators and needles to balloon-like equipment. Objectives: * To evaluate the quality of the brachytherapy procedure at the National Institutes of Health Radiation Oncology Branch. Eligibility: * Patients with cancer who could potentially benefit from high-dose brachytherapy as part of their treatment. Design: * In conjunction with their existing treatment, patients will be treated with high-dose brachytherapy as determined appropriate for their particular type of cancer and cancer history. * Each treatment will take place in the Radiation Oncology Clinic. * If the patient does not have implant devices, the clinic staff will insert them and check their placement through a computed tomography (CT) scan. * The calculations to determine the appropriate brachytherapy dose will take a few hours; the brachytherapy treatment itself will take between 10 and 30 minutes. * The number of brachytherapy treatments will vary according to the individual needs and requirements of each type of cancer and each patient. * Patients will return to the Radiation Oncology Clinic for follow-up visits at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after the completion of radiation therapy. Follow-up evaluations will include a medical history and physical examination, assessment of any side effects of radiation therapy, and a repeat of any imaging (i.e., CT, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-ray) that was done at baseline to evaluate the tumor response.

Primary Outcome

An implant is adequate if 90% of the Gross Tumor Volume (GTV) receives 90% of the dose prescribed and 80% of the Clinical Tumor Volume (CTV) receives 85% of the prescribed dose. An implant is inadequate if the above criteria is not met. A GTV only applies to certain disease sites such as gynecologic cancer that have not been removed by surgery and CTV applies to prostate or gynecologic cancer that have been removed surgically.

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• DIAGNOSTIC_TEST MRI
• DIAGNOSTIC_TEST CT
• DIAGNOSTIC_TEST PET Scan
• RADIATION High Dose Radiation (HDR) Brachytherapy

Study Locations (1)