Our Facility:
The multi-center Beaumont Radiation Oncology Department has an unsurpassed range of technology and services to offer its patients. In addition to our standard state-of-the-art linac services, we recently completed installation of an Elekta Unity MR-linac. We were the first center in America to install and treat patients using the IBA Proteus One image-guided, IMPT system, currently treating 20-25 patients daily in our proton center. Our robust Gamma Knife program treats over 300 patients annually.
Of course, our brachytherapy program has been a pioneer and leader in the field for over 30 years. We were one of the first centers in the world to routinely offer HDR brachytherapy for prostate cancer with our published experience leading the field toward the current standards in technique, dosing, and fractionation. We maintain additionally a high volume of gynecologic cases (both intracavitary and interstitial) with a referral base drawing from the entire state of Michigan and surrounding area.
At Beaumont, the brachytherapy program is completely radiation oncologist driven. For prostate cancer, radiation oncologists perform the entire procedure. Close collaboration, when appropriate, is maintained with gynecologic oncologists for complex treatments, but these are again driven by the radiation oncology faculty with interstitial implants led and performed by our staff. Beaumont has additionally been a leader in breast brachytherapy. Despite a decrease in the volume of cases over the past several years seen with the routine implementation of hypofractionation, this is still a provided service at our institution.
Fellowship Description:
During this two-month fellowship, the resident will be expected to gain competency in multiple brachytherapy procedures. This is viewed as a comprehensive process involving clinical pre-treatment patient assessment and selection, technical evaluation, procedure performance, and clinical follow up. As such, it would be expected that the fellow sees new, prospective brachytherapy candidates in clinic for initial consultation/assessment, participates in any pre-treatment evaluation or procedures that may be pertinent, and of course, direct participation in the brachytherapy procedures themselves. It is our goal as a training center that the fellow completes the program with a comfort level, at the very least, to move into a role as a practicing brachytherapy provider but, ideally, to acquire the skills and knowledge to implement brachytherapy treatments at centers where they were not previously offered.
Case volume:
As an institution, we typically perform 150-160 prostate HDR implants annually (average 3 cases per week). We do not offer LDR prostate brachytherapy at our institution. There are between 200-250 fractions of HDR intracavitary gynecologic brachytherapy delivered annually consisting of both cylinder treatment of the vaginal vault (single and multi-catheter) and ring and tandem for cervix. There is, on average, one interstitial gynecologic implant performed per month. Breast brachytherapy is offered and the fellow would have the opportunity to participate in any such cases; however, this has become less frequently implemented in recent years. There are, however, experienced clinicians and physicists that could provide didactic instruction in breast brachytherapy in the absence of clinical cases. We have a robust coronary brachytherapy program using strontium-90 to treat in-stent restenosis (average approximately 1 case per week). I-125 plaque brachytherapy is offered for choroidal melanoma (average 1 case per month).
ABS Fellowship Application: Beaumont/Corewell Health, HDR GYN and HDR Prostate
Accepting Applications
