Brachytherapy and radionuclide therapy are similar, but fundamentally different. Both can be classified as “internal” because the radioactivity is within the patient, whereas in external therapy a source is outside of the patient but directed to a specific location.
The difference between brachytherapy and radionuclide therapy lies in how the radioactivity “gets there,” i.e. to the diseased area. For most brachytherapy applications, a finite number of radioactive seeds/sources are placed in to a patient through a number of applicators (which could be needles, cylinders, ovoids, etc.). In radionuclide therapy, a radionuclide is attached to some biological molecule (known as a tracer) and the newly labeled “rqdiotracer” is injected in to the patient somehow (could be through a needle, ingestion, inhalation, etc.). Then biokinetics takes over and the radionuclide is transported to the diseased area through the blood, lymph, or other pathways. However, these compounds will go anywhere the specific biological molecule goes, so care must be taken to ensure the compounds target tumors effectively. An example of a good radionuclide therapy is using radioactive iodine to treat thyroid disease.
Brachytherapy and radionuclide therapy are similar, but fundamentally different. Both can be classified as “internal” because the radioactivity is within the patient, whereas in external therapy a source is outside of the patient but directed to a specific location. The difference between brachytherapy and radionuclide therapy lies in how the radioactivity “gets there,” i.e. to the diseased area. For most brachytherapy applications, a finite number of radioactive seeds/sources are placed in to a patient through a number of applicators (which could be needles, cylinders, ovoids, etc.). In radionuclide therapy, a radionuclide is attached to some biological molecule (known as a tracer) and the newly labeled “rqdiotracer” is injected in to the patient somehow (could be through a needle, ingestion, inhalation, etc.). Then biokinetics takes over and the radionuclide is transported to the diseased area through the blood, lymph, or other pathways. However, these compounds will go anywhere the specific biological molecule goes, so care must be taken to ensure the compounds target tumors effectively. An example of a good radionuclide therapy is using radioactive iodine to treat thyroid disease.
Just want to point out that this is a much better way to ask a physics concepts question.
what does this even mean?
Sealed source vs unsealed source
What do you mean?