Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

Dear Readers,
The present year 2020 will surely be remembered as stigmatized by COVID-19. Despite fighting the SARS-CoV-2, oncology providers have especially focused on cancer patients. As many say, the virus causes mostly mild infections, but unfortunately, claims its victims, and cancerous diseases if not treated are the potential field of additional fatalities. In order to cope with problems caused by viral pandemics and to treat our patients efficiently, we present another paper on brachytherapy practice during the current pandemic: A review on the practice changes due to COVID-19. This paper written by our Indian friends from IBS has already been available for some time on our website.
Basing on my clinical practice, I have observed a few cases up-staged because of delayed access to the oncology center. Sadly, part of them will probably be lost. Dear all, assure safe zones in your practices and offer treatment to those who need it here and now.
Again, I am very pleased to present the new, 4th issue of “Journal of Contemporary Brachytherapy” this year, which opens with an analysis from the US National Cancer Database on eye plaque brachytherapy versus enucleation for ocular melanoma. The authors’ most important conclusion is that patients selected for brachytherapy had improved survival compared to enucleation in all size cohorts of the study.
The following five clinical investigations are on the usage of different kinds of implantable seeds in various clinical indications. Authors from Philadelphia, Rochester, and New York (USA) reported on dosimetric differences between cesium-131 and iodine-125 brachytherapy for the treatment of resected brain metastases. Compared to 125I, 131Cs exposed smaller volumes of brain tissue to equivalent doses of radiation, which may result in less incidence of radionecrosis. Eiichiro Okazaki et al. (Osaka, Japan) compared post-implant dosimetrics using sector analysis at 24 hours and 1 month, between intraoperatively built custom-linked 125I seeds and loose seeds for localized prostate cancer. They emphasized the advantage of linked seeds, and details to be discovered in the paper. Representatives of Central South University (Xiangya, China) evaluated TRUS-based dosimetry for 125I brachytherapy of prostate cancer and stated that this approach is feasible, and TRUS-based dosimetry does not differ significantly from standard CT-based prostate seed dosimetry. Another Chinese group...


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