[High dose rate brachytherapy]

The high dose rate brachytherapy uses a single source os 192Ir with 10Ci of nominal activity in a remote afterloading machine. This technique allows an outpatient treatment, without the inconveniences of the conventional low dose rate brachytherapy such as use of general anesthesia, rhachianesthesia, prolonged immobilization, and personal exposition to radiation. The radiotherapy department is now studying 5 basic treatment schemes concerning carcinomas of the uterine cervix, endometrium, lung, esophagus and central nervous system tumors. With the Micro Selectron HDR, 257 treatment sessions were done in 90 patients. Mostly were treated with weekly fractions, receiving a total of three to four treatments each. No complications were observed neither during nor after the procedure. Doses, fraction and ideal associations still have to be studied, so that a higher therapeutic ratio can be reached.