Brachytherapy

At Barts Cancer Centre we have the specialist facilities and expertise to offer internal radiotherapy, known as brachytherapy. This gives radiation treatment directly to a particular part of the body.

Brachytherapy is where solid radioactive material is placed inside the body to destroy cancer cells. It is placed within or near to the cancer, and as the radiation does not travel very far the advantage of this treatment is that it gives a high dose of radiotherapy directly to the tumour, but a low dose to normal tissues.

In women, brachytherapy can be used to treat cancers of the cervix, womb or vagina. It can be used on its own or combined with other treatments such as external radiotherapy.

In men, brachytherapy is a common procedure used to treat prostate cancer and is recognised as an alternative to traditional, external beam radiotherapy. It involves implanting ‘seeds’ or ‘pellets’ of radioactive material directly into the prostate gland under a general or spinal anaesthetic. These ‘seeds’ are about the size of a grain of rice.

Brachytherapy is also used to treat other forms of cancer such as thyroid cancer.

At Barts Cancer Centre, we have a dedicated brachytherapy theatre and recovery rooms on our wards. Our rooms are all spacious single ensuite rooms with their own fridge and temperature control, to ensure that patients receiving this type of treatment are as comfortable as possible during their stay with us.