Contact information:
main telephone: 41 36 74 026
Head of the Department: Iwona Kubicka-Mendak, MD, PhD, radiation oncology specialist
Brachytherapy is a treatment method in which the neoplastic tissue is irradiated by placing the source of the radioisotope in the tumor or its immediate vicinity. This methods allows for administering a very high dose to the tumor while reducing the radiation dose to surrounding normal tissues which increases the chances of recovery while reducing the risk of post- radiation complications. In most cases, the application of isotope takes place during the surgical procedure, for example bronchoscopy, endoscopy, or surgery. Brachytherapy is most often part of a therapy combined with teleradiotherapy, surgery and / or chemotherapy. In specific clinical situations it is used as an independent method of treatment.
The Department Brachytherapy we offer the following types brachytherapy:
conformal intracavitary and interstitial brachytherapy for patients with the cervix, uterus, vagina and vulva cancer,
endoluminal brachytherapy for patients diagnosed with cancers of the lung, trachea, esophagus and nasopharynx,
interstitial brachytherapy for patients diagnosed with prostate or breast cancer,
perioperative brachytherapy for tumors in various locations, and
interstitial and contact brachytherapy for primary and metastatic tumor lesions of the skin, subcutaneous tissue and peripheral lymph nodes.
The Department of Brachytherapy contains 10 beds in single rooms equipped with a separate bathroom.
Therapeutic and surgical art of the Department consists of fully protected operating room adapted for performing intraoperative and perioperative brachytherapy equipped with a CT scanner with a moving gantry and the HDR Microselectron therapeutic camera, bunker equipped with a HDR GammaMed Plus therapeutic camera, 2 treatment rooms adapted to perform treatments in general anesthesia equipped with 2 X-ray machines: C-arm and U-arm, a set of devices for video-bronchoscopy and 2 ultrasound scanners as well as a recovery room.
The Hyperthermia Laboratory is equipped with BSD-500 apparatus to perform interstitial and surface hyperthermia of tumors in combination with brachytherapy.
