Balloon breast brachytherapy
Balloon breast brachytherapy (BBB) is a technique for delivering radiation treatment in women with early-stage breast cancer. It is given after lumpectomy, or surgical removal of a small breast neoplasm, and is a shorter alternative to the more traditional method of external beam radiation for seven weeks.
Procedure
Balloon breast brachytherapy is performed with the Mammosite® device, a single soft catheter with a balloon at the tip, placed in the lumpectomy cavity, either at the time of lumpectomy or as an office procedure following surgery. The balloon is then inflated with saline solution up to a diameter of about 2 inches to accommodate the individual cavity, after which a 192Ir radiation source, connected to a computer-controlled high-dose-rate remote afterloader, is inserted into the inflated balloon and left in situ for several minutes to deliver the radiation dose.
The treatments, which takes about 20 minutes each, are usually given in outpatient fashion twice daily for five days. Once the therapy is concluded, the balloon is deflated and the catheter is removed. This method is similar to that used for prostate cancer brachytherapy, using radioactive seeds, and is completely painless.
Advantages
- a substantial decrease in the duration of therapy (five days compared to seven weeks for external beam radiation)
- reduction of the amount of healthy tissue exposed to radiation
- excellent cosmetic outcome
Disadvantages
- inadequate skin distance
- poor cavity conformance
Related Radiopaedia articles
Radiation therapy
-
radiation therapy
- external beam radiation therapy (EBRT)
- sealed source radiation therapy (brachytherapy)
- unsealed source radiation therapy
- complications related to radiation therapy
- acute radiation syndrome
- complications of cranial radiation therapy
- radiation-induced thyroid cancer
- radiation-induced neuritis
-
complications of thoracic radiation therapy
- lungs
- mediastinum
- soft tissues
- bony thoracic cage
- complications of abdominopelvic radiation therapy
- radiation-induced bone marrow signal changes - MRI