After hundreds of treatments, we have seen no damage to the surrounding tissues. It is much more versatile than that. Endobronchial high-doserate remote after loading can be used for lesions within the airways or outside the airways, compressing the airways. Often metastatic cancers compress the airways causing many of the same symptoms as a cancer within the airway. Because of the advantages of radiation, the beam penetrates through the airway causing shrinkage of the tumor.
All radiation only goes to the patient and most specifically, to the area prescribed.
Afterloading means a device is placed and then treatment is carried out using this previously placed equipment. With this new technology, a high dose of radiation can be delivered within a very short period of time. This short delivery of therapy is important for a variety of reasons including patient comfort, and most likely has a greater biologic effect on the cancer. The most important are for patients with esophageal cancer whose cancer causes obstruction of the esophagus. It is a very similar situation to the patient with obstruction of the airways.