The Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton Ontario is offering terminal patients suffering from esophageal and lung cancer a chance at a better quality of life with a cutting-edge treatment known as high-dose brachytherapy. The radiation therapy lasts only a few minutes, but can completely destroy tumours from the inside.

The Juravinski Centre is one of the few places in Canada that uses it on patients with cancer of the esophagus or food pipe, and the only place in Canada to use it on lung cancer patients. Lung and esophageal cancer are among the deadliest types of cancer because they are rarely caught before they are in the advanced stages. By the time most patients are diagnosed they find they have few treatment options available.

For some patients brachytherapy means being able to eat food again. For others it's the ability to take a comfortable breath of air. Patients from as far away as Alberta and Newfoundland have travelled to Hamilton to take advantage of the treatment.

The treatment involves sending a tiny radioactive seed inside the body to beam high doses of gamma rays at the tumour. It shrinks tumours that would have otherwise blocked the food pipe or airways. This treatment is more about palliative care rather than a cure. By the time these cancers have been discovered they have generally already spread to other parts of the body.

Dr. Ranjan Sur, a world-renowned radiation oncologist and pioneer of brachytherapy says this a new concept, improving the quality of life of patients who know they are going to die. It will also lengthen the average survival time for patients diagnosed with these types of cancer. High dose brachytherapy doubles the survival time to four or five months in the case of esophageal cancer.