Brachytherapy in India has cured many international patients from fatal tumours and cancers. Cancer surgery hospitals of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Nagpur have become reliable medical centers for providing low cost brachytherapy in India. In recent years medical tourism has made great progress in India and has facilitated medical treatment in India to abroad patients at an affordable cost budget. Brachytherapy is a radiation surgery that involves placement of radioactive material inside the body where tumours are present. It is a kind of radiation therapy to cure cancer and is also known as internal radiation therapy. This therapy enables doctors to deliver high doses of radiations from radioactive materials to destroy cancer tumours present inside the human body. The side effects associated with brachytherapy are very less compared to traditional form of cancer surgery. Less time is taken for completion of brachytherapy. This therapy makes use of ionized radiations to kill cancer tumours. Brachytherapy differs from external beam therapy. In external beam therapy powerful X-ray beams are generated by an external machine and are targeted to the cancer tumours. On the other hand in brachytherapy a radioactive material is placed inside the body near the tumour. This therapy enables a surgeon to provide high frequency radiation to cure a smaller area of tumours.
The implants of brachytherapy are of two kinds:-
1) Permanent implants:-These implants involve low dose brachytherapy that contain small pellets or seeds. These seeds of radioactive material are very small of the size of grains. These radioactive seeds are inserted into the tumour in the body with the help of thin and hollow needles. After the radiations have been utilized to destroy tumours these radioactive seeds are left in the human body. The small size of radioactive seeds in permanent brachytherapy does not create any kind of discomfort to the patient.
2) Temporary implants:-These implants of brachytherapy involve use of radioactive material that is removed after completion of radiation therapy. In temporary brachytherapy implants hollow needles and catheters are filled with fluid and are inserted into the area having cancer tumours for a small period of time.
Brachytherapy is an outpatient radiation therapy that removes the requirement of remaining at the hospital for the entire night. This procedure usually takes one hour for its completion. During this therapy the patients are supplied with anaesthesia that makes them asleep during the tumour removal surgery.