La curiethérapie en France en 1995. Résultats définitifs de lʹenquête nationale

Summary ey questionnaire was sent to the 189 French departments of radiation Oncology and 166 responded (88%). Ninety-nine departments declared treating patients by brachytherapy and 358 shelded rooms were available. In Low Dose Rate (LDR) 81 departments used Cesium sources (159 afterloaders, 1,060 sources). Iridium wires were used by 84 departments (673 meters used). Only six departments used other elements. Twenty-six departments were equipped with high dose rate after loaders (HDR) all of them also using LDR techniques for most of the patients. A total of 9,160 patients were treated: 7,868 with LDR and 1,292 with HDR. The common sites treated by LDR were uterovagina (4,300), breast (1,415), head and neck (1,049), skin (610), anorectal (220) and urologic (70). HDR was used for vaginal cuff (628), bronchi (371), oesophagus (232). PDR just started (33 patients) for a feasibility trial. The rate of patients treated by brachytherapy is around 6–8% of the irradiated patients, but the indications vary is each department. The diffusion of the techniques, and new indications should increase the number of patients being treated by brachytherapy.