American Brachytherapy Society (ABS) consensus statement for sarcoma brachytherapy

Purpose: To present recommendations for the use of brachytherapy (BT) in patients with soft tissue sarcoma (STS).

Methods: A group of practitioners with expertise and experience in sarcoma BT formulated recommendations for BT in STS based on clinical experience and literature review.

Results: The indications for adjuvant BT are discussed. There is no consensus on the use of BT alone or in combination with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT), but factors that influence the selection of this modality include tumor grade and size, prior surgeries, and tumor recurrence. Low-dose-rate, high-dose-rate, and pulsed-dose-rate radiation are all acceptable BT modalities to use for STS. Recommendations are made for patient selection, techniques, dose rates, and dosages. Outcome data and toxicity data are reviewed.

Conclusions: BT is a useful component of the treatment of STS. The advantages of BT are the targeted dose distribution, low integral dose, and short treatment times. Ultimately the clinician should select the modality or combination of modalities that are most familiar to the treatment team and suitable to the patient.