Brachytherapy: an effective and safe treatment for skin cancer: evaluation of a large patient cohort in real-world clinical practice.

Introduction: Skin cancers, although rarely metastatic or fatal, represent a significant clinical challenge. Surgery remains the most established and frequently used treatment modality, but comparable therapeutic outcomes can be achieved with radiotherapy. However, the role of radiotherapy - particularly brachytherapy - in the treatment of skin cancers is poorly described in the literature. There is a lack of prospective studies comparing the efficacy of these treatment methods. Aim: Assessment of the efficacy and safety of brachytherapy for skin cancer. Material and methods: An ambispective analysis included 215 patients with 236 lesions of epithelial skin cancers treated from 2015 to 2023, with a minimum of 1 year of follow-up after treatment. Results: Complete remission was achieved in 93.2% of treated lesions. Treatment failure occurred in 6.8% of cases, including 0.8% of uncured lesions and 5.9% of recurrences, which were more common in squamous than basal cell carcinoma ( Conclusions: The high remission rate confirms brachytherapy as an effective skin cancer treatment regardless of the fractionation schedule used, offering excellent cosmetic and functional outcomes when properly applied.