The nuances of brachytherapy taught by teachers from beyond: Questionnaire-based assessment of the first cadaveric hands-on brachytherapy workshop in India

PURPOSE: A questionnaire-based assessment of a cohort of young radiation oncologists attending the first human cadaveric hands-on brachytherapy workshop in India. METHODS AND MATERIALS: The cadaveric workshop for hands-on training in head/neck and gynecologic cancers was a novel process conducted at M.S. Ramaiah Medical College and Hospital, for which 30 attendees from all regions of India took part with an opportunity to interact with experienced resource persons, individually perform the procedure, and indulge in all aspects of brachytherapy process. The questionnaire was part of the workshop and enquired on common practices for head/neck and gynecologic brachytherapy followed by the attendees at their hospitals and their opinion on avenues for learning the skill of brachytherapy and its future as a therapeutic modality. RESULTS: Twenty-seven of thirty attendees were practicing brachytherapy at their centers out of which only 14 (46%) were doing head/neck brachytherapy. In gynecologic procedures, 89% were performing only intracavitary brachytherapy. Twenty attendees (66%) felt lack of expertise was the primary reason for dwindling brachytherapy practice in India. Ten (33%) of them felt that advancements in external radiotherapy were the second major cause for it. Some less important reasons given were lack of suitable cases, fear of toxicity, and reduced remuneration. CONCLUSIONS: Cadaveric brachytherapy workshops may be a practical and cost-effective method to inculcate this unique skill set in the next generation of radiation oncologists. This questionnaire-based assessment has tried to validate this opinion. (C) 2016 American Brachytherapy Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.