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| Combined Radiation Treatment Radiation Delivery |
External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) and brachytherapy (BT) have different advantages and disadvantages for the treatment of cancer. To exploit the relative advantages of both treatment methods, some clinicians have expressed an interest in combining EBRT with BT. However, the temporal pattern of radiation delivery is very different for these two methods (see Figure 1), and research is ongoing to determine the biologically optimal treatment design. For example, how much of the treatment should be delivered using EBRT and how much should be delivered using BT? Detailed kinetic biological simulations are required to answer questions such as these. Tip: The Virtual Cell is one of the few (if not the only) biological modeling tools available to predict the combined effects of brachytherapy and external-beam radiation treatments. | |
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Figure 1. An example of a hypothetical external beam radiation treatment (EBRT) combined with a I-131 brachytherapy treatment. In the combined radiation treatment (solid black lines), the EBRT component delivers a total of 60 Gy in 2 Gy daily dose fractions. The I-131 brachytherapy component delivers a total dose of 100 Gy. The half-life of I-131 is 8.04 days (see Table of selected radioisotope half-lives). Shown in red is the dose rate and cumulative absorbed dose expected if the entire 160 Gy treatment was given using I-131 brachytherapy. | |
| School of Health Sciences Purdue University Disclaimer | Last updated: 10 June, 2011 |
