**Bhubaneswar:** In a bid to give cure for the breast cancer patient and at the same time either minimal or no side effects, brachytherapy is the best as opined by experts at the ongoing 4-day-long Aroicon 2016 here at the capital city.
Dr Janaki Manur Gururajachar, Bengaluru said, “Brachytherapy treatment is a very good form. We can finish the treatment in a week. It’s actually given two fractions a day. It gets over within a week. It’s the most conformal treatment.”
“Expertise is much less. So, that’s the reason it has not taken over much. But we’ve taken up state of the art training not found in the world. Lots of oncologists come, learn and do it in their own places. I foresee that in a couple of years that will form a major treatment and brachytherapy will win,” she claimed.
While drawing a comparison between brachytherapy and chemotherapy, she said, “We can’t compare brachytherapy with chemotherapy. It’ll be like comparing apples with oranges. Chemotherapy acts systematically. It acts on the entire body. Brachytherapy is a very localised treatment. It gives treatment only to that area. It’s a very highly focused, precise, localised treatment with a very high dose to that region. In terms of best therapeutic outcome, we take in terms of highest cure with least possible side effect. This is most advantage of brachytherapy.”
Prof John Yarnold an expert on radio therapy from London said, “In brachytherapy where radioactive sources just for a few minutes a day inserted into the breast and allow the treatment to be given very quickly.”
Dr A.K. Anand from New Delhi informed, “Brachytherapy means when the radiation is given very near the tumour. We apply radiation source in or around the tumour. In the usual form of radiation therapy which is called teletherapy, radiation is given from outside. In brachytherapy we put radiation sources inside with a minor surgical procedure. We anaesthetise the patient and put radiation sources inside the tumour or in or around the tumour. The greatest advantage brachytherapy has is that it gives a very high dose and that the dose is very much confined in and around the tumour. Hence, the normal organs outside of the tumour, they get very little dose. The side effects are much less in brachytheraphy. In brachytheraphy there is no need of sacrificing the affected organ as is in the case of surgery.”
Prof Surendra Nath Senapati, Chief Coordinator, Aroicon 2016, said, “Today is the third of the conference. We’re also discussing two major issues, particularly cancer among the females. One is breast cancer and the second one is the survical cancer. There is established role of radio therapy in breast cancer. There is tumour control and prevents the local recurrence. Simultaneously, in the advancement of technology, there is also less side-effect. We can apply this technology for the betterment of the cancer patient of our State. Though the incidence of breast cancer is increasing day by day, it’s due to our lifestyle, but the survical cancer is gradually in decreasing trend.”