Interstitial brachytherapy in the treatment of lung cancer

Interstitial brachytherapy is a satisfactory alternative to surgery for patients with unresectable stage I and II lung cancer, as it is demonstrated by the local control of 75-80% and the five year survival of 35-45%. In stage III unresectable lung cancer although a satisfactory local control of about 70% was achieved, the survival was poor with less than 10% surviving at 5 years. Interstitial brachytherapy causes less damage to the normal lung tissue; this was amply noted in all our long survivors in whom the cancer was locally controlled. Interstitial brachytherapy adds, on the average, 45 minutes to one hour to the operating time. It does not increase hospital stay, and it converts an exploratory thoracotomy into a therapeutic procedure. For a disease that continuous to be a leading cause of cancer death, we include another effective method of treatment in our armamentarium. (orig.)