Recent progress in radioactive seed implantation brachytherapy of non-small cell lung cancer: a narrative review.

ABSTRACT

Background and Objective: Brachytherapy, a new form of radiation therapy, has been used to treat lung cancer and consists of two main forms of treatment endobronchial brachytherapy and radioactive seed implantation brachytherapy (RSI-BT), the latter of which is used to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The use of RSI-BT in the treatment of NSCLC at our centre has yielded some positive results. Methods: To more fully consider the context of this application, we conducted a search of PubMed from 2018 to March 5, 2023. The search included a combination of the MeSH terms "brachytherapy" and "lung neoplasm". Key Content and Findings: The majority of NSCLC patients who received RSI-BT achieved positive benefits. Most patients had a progression-free survival (PFS) of between 12 and 18 months. Additionally, radioactive particle stent implantation as a specific RSI-BT has shown therapeutic potential in the treatment of malignant airway obstruction. With the application of new technologies, RSI-BT will become more precise, efficient and inexpensive. Conclusions: This review demonstrates that RSI-BT can be therapeutic in the treatment of both early and advanced NSCLC with manageable complications. There have also been reports on the combination of RSI-BT with other therapies, but more research is needed on the combination of RSI-BT with them.