Postoperative High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy in the Prevention of Keloids

Background

The aim of this study is to show the efficiency of keloidectomy and postoperative interstitial high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy in the prevention of keloids.

Methods and Materials

Between 1998 and 2004, 35 patients with 54 keloids were treated postoperatively with HDR brachytherapy. The first HDR dose was applied within 6 hours after surgery, and two additional HDR doses were administered on the next day with a six-hour interval. The majority of patients received 6 Gy as the first dose postsurgery and two fractions of 4 Gy (38 keloids) on the next day. Seven keloids were treated postoperatively with three fractions of 6 Gy. The biologically effective dose (BED), derived from the linear quadratic concept, was applied to calculate the BED for the various radiation regimens. The keloid recurrence rates at specific BED values were compared with those derived for other fractionation schemes in the literature.

Results

Four recurrences/nonsatisfactory results out of nine treated keloids were observed after treatments with 1 × 4 Gy + 2 × 3 Gy. Only one recurrence out of 38 was found after 1 × 6 Gy + 2 × 4 Gy and none after 3 × 6 Gy. Better cosmetic results were found at the higher-dose schemes.

Conclusion

The results of this study prove the effectiveness of HDR brachytherapy after keloidectomy provided that the total HDR dose is sufficient. Currently our scheme is 3 × 6 Gy.

High-dose-rate brachytherapy, Keloids, Postoperative radiotherapy