FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Brachytherapy is one of the many treatments offered at the Goshen Center for Cancer Care, and it can be critically important to a patient’s well-being. Brachytherapy allows the doctors at the Goshen Center for Cancer Care to deliver radiation directly to a tumor.

When a patient undergoes treatment, an applicator is used.

“It’s a specific device that’s positioned into a body cavity or can be inserted right next to tumor, and then the radiation goes into the applicators and delivers radiation through the special catheter,” says Dr. Irina Sparks, radiation oncologist at the Goshen Center for Cancer Care.

Dr. Sparks explains another version of brachytherapy allows doctors to use a special catheter while a patient is under anesthesia in the operating room.

“Traditionally it’s been utilized for GYN cancer such as cervical cancer, endometrial cancer. But it can also be used for cancers like lung cancer, cancer of the esophagus, metastatic disease, where we need to deliver radiation exactly to the tumor. So many different cancers can be treated with brachytherapy,” says Dr. Sparks.

Placement is key for the use of brachytherapy. For treatment of the lung and bronchus, and endoscope is used. This also allows doctors to see the tumor they’re treating.

Patients see key benefits to have brachytherapy treatments.

“It allows to protect normal organs. Because the radiation from brachytherapy does not go far away from where we’re treating, and that’s actually very good benefit for patients.”

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