- temporary brachytherapy - permanent brachytherapy
Temporary brachytherapy consists of placing the radioactive seeds (radiation) inside the body and then taking them out after a certain amount of time.
Permanent brachytherapy consists of placing the radioactive seeds inside the body and leaving them. The radioactive seeds actually stop emitting radiation after a certain amount of time but lay in the body causing no problems.
There are actually teams of people who administer the brachytherapy. Among this team are a radiation oncologist, a radiation physicist, a radiation therapist, and the person who manually does the procedure.
The radiation oncologist decides the area to be treated and the overall treatment plan, the radiation physicist decides the best equipment to be used to infuse the radiation, the dosimetrist decides the dosage to be given and helps in distributing the dose and the radiation therapist operates the equipment that administers the radiation.
Brachytherapy is considered to be a safer method of treatment for mesothelioma than other treatments for the cancer, but there are side effects of this procedure. Right after the procedure there is soreness at the site of the radiation there may also be swelling in the same area. Short-term side effects are soreness and bleeding at the site but generally only last a few days.
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