Systems and methods are provided for treating cervical and/or uterine cancers in brachytherapy with an intracavitary brachytherapy applicator. The system comprises a tandem adapted for insertion into a cervix of a patient. An ovoid assembly comprises first and second inflatable ovoids and an ovoid support mechanism. The first and second inflatable ovoids are adapted for insertion within fornices of a patient. First and second retractors are adapted to be coupled to the ovoid assembly. The first retractor is adapted to be positioned to retract the bladder of a patient during treatment. The second retractor is adapted to be positioned to retract the rectum of a patient during treatment. The tandem and the first and second inflatable ovoids are adapted to be coupled to a radioactive source to deliver an implant radiation dose suitable for cancer treatment at a cancerous cervical treatment site in a patient.

A fastener applicator includes a body portion including a handle assembly, a cartridge assembly supported within the body portion, the cartridge assembly including implantable fasteners, a drive assembly supported within the body portion and operatively coupled to the cartridge assembly to engage the implantable fasteners, and an actuation assembly supported within the handle assembly and operatively coupled to the drive assembly to fire a distal-most implantable fastener upon actuation of the actuation assembly. At least one of the implantable fasteners includes a body including a tissue facing surface, a tissue penetrating portion extending from the body, and a capsule affixed to the tissue facing surface of the body, the capsule including radioactive material.

Carriers for embodying radioactive seeds, as well as a device for loading and customizing brachytherapy carriers based on the principles of optimizing a more precise and predictable dosimetry, and adaptable to the geometric challenges of a tumor bed in a real-time setting. The present disclosure relates to a specialized loading device designed to enable a medical team to create a radionuclide carrier for each patient and tumor reliably, reproducibly and efficiently.

A method and apparatus for marking a target with a radiopaque marker is disclosed. The method may include providing a radiopaque filament and inserting at least portion of the radiopaque filament into tissue. The filament may extend continuously and at last partially around a perimeter of the target so that the filament is disposed in a plurality of surgical planes to demarcate the target with the radiopaque maker.

The disclosure is directed to devices for use in radiation therapy. Various configurations of shielding materials within shielding layers, such as for use in shielding radiation from radioactive sources within implanted radioactive carriers, are discussed herein.

A device for implanting radiotherapy seeds in a tumor. The device includes a delivery tube having a distal end designed to enter the tumor, and defining an internal channel and an elongate applicator carrying one or more radiotherapy seeds each having a length of at least 1 millimeter, the applicator passing through the internal channel of the delivery tube. When a distal end of the elongate applicator is near a distal end of the delivery tube, it assumes an angle relative to an axis of the delivery tube, such that seeds ejected from the elongate applicator enter the tumor at an angle relative to the axis of the delivery tube.

An apparatus for providing treatment to at least one tissue includes a distal balloon, a proximal balloon, and an intermediate balloon positioned between the distal balloon and the proximal balloon and inflatable independently from the distal and proximal balloons. A source lumen is positioned within at least the intermediate balloon receives a radiation source to treat target tissue adjacent the intermediate balloon.

The present invention relates to a device (2) and a method (100) for determining at least one final two-dimensional image or slice for visualizing an object of interest in a three-dimensional ultrasound volume. The method (100) for determining at least one final two-dimensional image, the method comprises the steps: a) providing (101) a three-dimensional image of a body region of a patient body, wherein an applicator configured for fixating at least one radiation source is inserted into the body region; b) providing (102) an initial direction, in particular by randomly determining the initial direction within the three-dimensional image; c) repeating (103) the following sequence of steps s1) to s4): s1) determining (104), via a processing unit, a set-direction within the three-dimensional image based on the initial direction for the first sequence or based on a probability map determined during a previous sequence; s2) extracting (105), via the processing unit, an image-set of two-dimensional images from the three-dimensional image, such that the two-dimensional images of the image-set are arranged coaxially and subsequently in the set-direction; s3) applying (106), via the processing unit, an applicator pre-trained classification method to each of the two-dimensional images of the image-set resulting in a probability score for each of the two-dimensional images of the image-set indicating a probability of the applicator being depicted, in particular fully depicted, in the respective two-dimensional image of the image-set in a cross-sectional view; and s4) determining (107), via the processing unit, a probability-map representing the probability scores of the two-dimensional images of the image-set with respect to the set-direction; wherein the method comprises the further step: d) determining (108), via a processing unit and after finishing the last sequence, the two-dimensional image associated with the highest probability score, in particular from the image-set determined during the last sequence, as the final two-dimensional image. The invention provides an efficient way to ensure that the ultrasound volume has the required clinical information by providing the necessary scan planes having the object of interest e.g. the applicator (6) in a three-dimensional ultrasound volume.

Described embodiments include an apparatus (20, 21), which includes a support (22), including an outer surface (24) and configured for insertion into a body of a subject. The apparatus further includes multiple atoms (26) of a radionuclide, which radioactively decays to produce a daughter radionuclide, coupled to the outer surface, and a layer (28, 33) of a polymer, which is permeable to the daughter radionuclide, that covers the atoms. Other embodiments are also described.

A method for treating a tumor, comprising identifying a tumor as a pancreatic cancer tumor and implanting in the tumor identified as a pancreatic cancer tumor, as least one diffusing alpha-emitter radiation therapy (DaRT) source with a suitable radon release rate and for a given duration, such that the source provides during the given duration a cumulated activity of released radon between 5.6 Mega becquerel (MBq) hour and 9.5 MBq hour, per centimeter length.