Since last year, around 20 patients have undergone brachytherapy, alongside conventional radiotherapy, at the François Baclesse Centre in Esch-sur-Alzette. Thanks to this development, patients with these forms of cancer no longer need to travel abroad for this treatment.
Brachytherapy involves delivering radiation directly into the tumour site, rather than from external machines.
According to Dr Johanne Hermesse, an oncological radiotherapist with extensive experience, the approach can achieve a local cure rate of around 85%. Dr Hermesse was specifically recruited to develop and implement brachytherapy for cervical cancer in Luxembourg and to train the supporting medical teams.
She explained that this treatment is aimed at patients with locally advanced cervical cancer, especially where tumours have invaded nearby tissue or organs, such as the bladder. In these cases, brachytherapy offers a way to avoid highly invasive surgery and its often debilitating consequences.
The treatment involves close collaboration between the François Baclesse Centre and the Emile Mayrisch Hospital Centre (CHEM). Patients must be hospitalised twice for the treatment, each time for two days.
During the first phase, the patient is placed under general anaesthesia and a radiation applicator is inserted through the vagina to reach the tumour. Once the patient wakes up, she is transferred to the Baclesse Centre, where the applicator is connected to the radiation device via a catheter.
This allows the tumour to be irradiated with high precision and directly at the source.
According to Professor Guillaume Vogin, Director of the François Baclesse Centre, the treatment delivers an additional, localised dose of radiotherapy after conventional external beam sessions. This extra dose enables better tumour control and significantly reduces the risk of recurrence.
Crucially, it allows organ preservation, sparing patients from severe gynaecological and digestive complications that often result from more aggressive treatments.
Dr Hermesse added that cervical cancer remains a fatal disease for many women each year, but this technique offers excellent local and regional disease control, giving patients a much better chance of recovery with fewer long-term effects.
Luxembourg’s national radiotherapy centre has already been using brachytherapy for prostate cancer for several years, though this also required a lengthy phase of planning and preparation.
Professor Vogin explained that treating cervical cancer with brachytherapy is particularly complex, requiring specific technical knowledge, training, and infrastructure. For this reason, Dr Hermesse was hired to lead the initiative and worked closely with both CHEM and the internal Baclesse teams to develop the necessary protocols and ensure the treatment could be launched safely and effectively.
Looking ahead, the centre also plans to extend brachytherapy to treat skin cancer, including certain non-malignant skin tumours.
