The practice of brachytherapy started soon after the discovery of radium (Ra-226) by Madam Curie in the last decade of 19th century. In the early years of 20th century researchers realized the efficacy of radiation therapy in treating a number of malignant diseases. Brachytherapy also known as internal radiotherapy and curie therapy is that form of radiotherapy where a radioactive source is placed in close vicinity or inside of the area requiring treatment. Brachytherapy is commonly used for effective treatment of cervical, prostate, breast, esophagus, skin cancers and can also be used to treat tumors in many other body sites .Brachytherapy can be used alone or in combination with other modalities such as surgery, chemotherapy and external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). Initially treatment was given based in individual experiences and clinical judgment ability. Carcinoma of esophagus is the seventh most common cancer among both sexes in countries with low and medium human development index which can be treated with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and intraluminal brachytherapy (IBT).

In recent days the dosimetric comparison of brachytherapy treatment of cervical cancer was outlined for Co-60 and Ir-192 source based high dose rate brachytherapy Step size based dosimetry study in uterine cervix was described for cobalt-60 based HDR Brachytherapy

To analyze dose distribution and treatment time of endobronchial brachytherapy (EBBT) by changing the position step size of the dwell position using the solid water phantom and an intraluminal catheter and concluded that the 2.5 mm position step was most suitable for EBBT The primary requirements of brachytherapy is accurate and careful treatment planning for prescribed dose delivery to the target and simultaneously minimize risk of radiation toxicity to the surrounding OARs .Sometimes, to spare the normal tissue, optimization has to be performed that compromises the tumor dose. Iridium-192 is widely used for high-dose rate brachytherapy. Cobalt-60 (Co-60) is a relatively new source for the application of high-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy with advantage of its longer half-life and its availability in miniaturized form (with dimensions comparable to those of Ir-192 HDR sources) .Co-60 sources with dimensions identical to those of 192Ir have recently been made available in clinical brachytherapy and its longer half time reduces demands on logistics and quality assurance and costs .

A comparative study of 10 patients of dose distributions of HDR intracavitary brachytherapy for different sources and treatment planning systems depicted the dose discrepancies between the two treatment plans are affected by the differences in the physical characteristics of source and the positioning method in TPS. The average air kerma in the 20-30 cm distance from the source was used to calculate the source’s air kerma rate at the reference point of 1 m. However, self-absorption in the source could not affect the air kerma strength’s value considerably ,The step size plays a significant role in plan optimization for prostate implants. In high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy, the source dwell times and dwell positions are vital parameters in achieving a desirable implant dose distribution. This study was designed to evaluate the optimum source step size and maximum source dwell time .

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