[Brachytherapy of cancer].

Brachytherapy is one of most effective methods of radiotherapy for cancer, and therefore, low-dose-rate brachytherapy is widely used for carcinoma of the uterus and carcinoma of the tongue. Between 1974 and 1983, 76 primary thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinomas were treated with external irradiation combined with additional intracavitary radium therapy at the National Sapporo Hospital. The esophageal primary control rate was 34% and the 5-year survival rate was 24.1%. We believe that external irradiation therapy followed by additional intracavitary radium irradiation produces good results. Also, from 1982, 30 patients with small residual or unresectable tumors received interstitial irradiation using an after-loading technique and iridium-192 seeds. Eighteen of these 30 patients treated with iridium-192 were recurrent cases, and 20 had outer tubes intra-operatively inserted into the tumor following iridium-192 irradiation. Ten of these patients had brain tumor, nine had cancer of the head and neck, and each of the remaining fifteen had the following malignancies: lung cancer, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, bile duct cancer, uterus cancer, skin cancer and soft tissue sarcoma. Overall 4-year survival was 17.1% in among the patients treated with Ir 192. Favorable preliminary results from these patients and those of various clinical trials on the extension of indications for brachytherapy were also reported.