Brachytherapy is potentially useful in the treatment of head-and-neck cancers, because most tumor
sites, such as the lip, tongue, floor of mouth, tonsil, pharynx, nasopharynx, sinuses, and neck, are
accessible for the placement of afterloading applicators and catheters.
1
It has the advantage of delivering a higher radiation dose to the tumor while sparing surrounding
normal tissue from radiation. Furthermore, the overall treatment duration is shorter, and the dose
distribution confirms to tumor shape.
Brachytherapy is used as “monotherapy” for the treatment of small primary tumors or recurrent
disease after external beam radiation therapy (EBRT).
Small cancers of the lip (less than 2 cm) are treated equally well with surgery or radiation
therapy with excellent cosmetic and functional results seen in radiation therapy.
2
We treated an 18-year old male diagnosed as stage I carcinoma lip with curative interstitial brachy-therapy. He was treated to a dose of 3 Gy per fraction, two fractions per day at interval of 6 hours
between the two fractions for 6 days. He therefore received a total dose of 36 Gy with High Dose
Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy, which is equivalent to 58.36 Gy conventional radiotherapy dose.
At two months follow, the patient is clinically disease free and has no complaints.
Key Words: Radiation Therapy, Interstitial Brachytherapy, Carcinoma Lip, Curative Treatment
