Out from the Shadows and into the Spotlight: Making Brachytherapy Available and Sustainable for Our Patients and Providers

This activity reinforces the value of brachytherapy in the curative treatment of patients with advanced gynecologic cancers and details the challenges in operationalizing complex gynecologic brachytherapy within a busy external beam department. Increasingly, many centers with brachytherapy expertise are coordinating the care of patients with external beam elsewhere and with significant social and medical challenges. The necessary training, equipment, time, personnel and facility space, organized around a sound business plan to optimally support brachytherapy, is explored using the most recent literature and experience of experts in the field. This activity discloses and brings awareness to these challenges to stimulate strategies for assuring the accessibility, sustainability and growth of this essential curative treatment modality.

Topics:

  1. Introduction to Brachytherapy
    Beth A. Erickson, MD, FASTRO
  2. The Show Must Go On: A Day in the Life of a Gyn Brachytherapist
    Emma C. Fields, MD
  3. Building Value for Brachytherapy
    Melissa M. Joyner, MD, MBA
    Anne Hubbard, MBA
  4. Flood Lights on Ingenuity and Creativity
    Beth A. Erickson, MD, FASTRO
  5. Q and A
    Anne Hubbard, MBA - Moderator
    Full Panel

This activity is available from August 12, 2025, through 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on August 11, 2027. 

The content was originally presented and recorded at the 2024 ASTRO Annual Meeting.

Target Audience

The activity is designed to meet the interests of radiation oncologists, physicists, nurses, radiation dosimetrists and residents.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

  • Acknowledge the essential role and complexity of brachytherapy in the curative treatment of gynecologic cancers.
  • Analyze the challenges in operationalizing state-of-the-art brachytherapy for patients with medical and social challenges in busy practices with variable support for brachytherapy.
  • Propose some potential strategies to effectively provide access to and sustain and evolve modern brachytherapy. 
Course summary
Available credit: 
  • 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™

    The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education for physicians. ASTRO designates this Enduring material for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

  • 1.00 Certificate of Attendance
    This activity was designated for 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.
Course opens: 
08/12/2025
Course expires: 
08/11/2027
Cost:
$149.00
Rating: 
0
  • Beth A. Erickson, MD, FASTRO, is employed by Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Erickson serves as Chair of the Education Council and Chair of the Fellows Committee with ASTRO. 
  • Anne Hubbard, MBA, is employed by ASTRO.
  • Emma C. Fields, MD, is employed by Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Massey Cancer Center. 
  • Melissa M. Joyner, MD, MBA, is employed by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Joyner serves in an uncompensated role with the MD Anderson Cancer Center as Associate Director Clinical Operations West Houston. 

The person(s) above served as the developer(s) of this activity. Additionally, the ASTRO Education Committee had control over the content of this activity. All relevant financial relationships have been mitigated.

Disclosure link: 
ASTRO Education Committee

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Available Credit

  • 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™

    The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education for physicians. ASTRO designates this Enduring material for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

  • 1.00 Certificate of Attendance
    This activity was designated for 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.

Price

Cost:
$149.00
Please login or register to take this course.

Course Fees:
ASTRO members must log in to the ASTRO website to view and receive the member rate.

  • Nonmember: $149
  • Member: $99
  • Member-in-Training: $49
  • Student/Graduate Student/PGY-1 Member: $49
  • Postdoctoral Fellow Member: $49

If you are an ASTRO member from a low or lower-middle income country, as identified by the World Bank, you can receive a 50% discount off your corresponding registration for this activity. Please email [email protected] to inquire about the discount.

Policies:
No refunds, extensions, or substitutions will be made for those participants who, for any reason, have not completed the activity by the expiration date. 

Participants using ASTRO Academy activities to satisfy the requirement of a Continuing Certification (MOC) program should verify the credit number and type and availability dates of any activity before making a purchase. No refunds, extensions, or substitutions will be made for participants who have purchased activities that do not align with their MOC requirement.

The activity and its materials will only be available on the ASTRO website until August 11, 2027, regardless of purchase date. At the expiration of the activity, participants will no longer have access to the activity or its materials. ASTRO reserves the right to remove an activity before its expiration date. 

Required Hardware/software

One of the two latest versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari.