Skin Cancer

Electronic Brachytherapy is a simple painless method to treat squamous and basal cell skin cancers at all body sites. Less than one percent of treated skin cancers return after electronic brachytherapy. Outpatient treatments are given twice a week for 4 weeks as a 5 minute procedure. There is no nausea, vomiting or fatigue. Electronic brachytherapy avoids the pain and scarring of surgical cancer removal.

Electronic brachytherapy is a combination of high dose rate low energy radiations and the radiobiological technique of accelerated hypo fractionation. Current results, albeit with short follow up, show improvement in local control over teletherapy and HDR studies.

NMSC treatable with standard fractionation teletherapy, Mohs or excision can be treated with electronic brachytherapy with comparable cure and complication rates. Sensitive areas on the pinna, lip, nasolabial fold, nasal ala, and canthus and eye lids are easily treated with electronic brachytherapy thus avoiding the need for tissue excision and grafting.

Patients and physicians are pleased with the ease and convenience of electronic brachytherapy treatments and with the short eight fraction treatment course. Dermatologists are now able to offer this effective, low morbidity therapy in their office for appropriately selected NMSC patients.