Enabling Brachytherapy Cancer Treatment for Low Resource Settings

Jolicoeur, Brock

Student Work

Enabling Brachytherapy Cancer Treatment for Low Resource Settings

Public

Internal radiation with sealed sources or ‘brachytherapy’, is a common form of cancer treatment that uses small radioactive materials placed in or adjacent to a tumor as primary or adjuvant cancer treatment. This direct treatment of radiation allows for efficient cancer treatment of smaller and more isolated cancers such as prostate, cervix, and breast. High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy involves using a machine called a remote afterloader to deliver radioactive sources inside the body for a mater of minutes. These devices are in short supply across low resource regions primarily due to costs. A HDR afterloader and the cost required to shield the dedicated HDR room can cost upwards of 300,000 and 500,000 USD respectively. Currently, there are only 70 total afterloaders are available for high dose rate brachytherapy for the entire continent of Africa, meeting roughly 37% of Africa’s need for only cervix cancer. This study serves as an introduction to the growing cancer crisis in Africa and provides blueprints for an affordable HDR brachytherapy afterloader that can help alleviate the current state of cancer treatment inequality between high and low infrastructure regions. Current radioisotope staples in HDR- Ir-192 and Co-60 - are investigated for their potential moving forward in low resource settings.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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