# Brachytherapy, intraoperative and skin radiotherapy machines: afterloaders, theatre linacs and office X-ray units

Source: https://onco.cc/roadmaps/brachytherapy-iort-machines-roadmap/  
OnCo record `brachytherapy-iort-machines-roadmap` (Roadmap). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The machines that put radiation inside or right next to a tumour: remote afterloaders that send a radioactive seed down a tube, accelerators small enough for an operating theatre, and low-energy X-ray units for skin cancer. Dated from the FDA records.

## Summary

Remote afterloaders keep the radioactive source in a safe and push it through catheters by computer, so staff are not exposed. Nucletron's Selectron and microSelectron HDR appear in the FDA record from 1986 (K852842, K864210), the GammaMed line from 1989 (K891131), Varian's VariSource from the 1990s and GammaMedplus iX in 2007, Isodose Control's Flexitron in 2007 (K070574, now sold by Elekta), Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG's SagiNova in 2015 (K142986), which offers a cobalt-60 source with a longer half-life, and Varian's BRAVOS in 2018 (K181903). Intraoperative machines run from the Mobetron mobile electron linac (1998) and Zeiss INTRABEAM (2005) to LIAC HWL (2018) and INTRABEAM 700 (2025). Superficial X-ray units for skin cancer date in the FDA record from the Therapax 150 (1978) to Sensus's SRT-100 family and Xstrahl's RADiant (2023), and electronic brachytherapy (Xoft Axxent, 2005; Esteya, 2013) replaced the radioactive source with a switchable X-ray tube.

## Fields

- Kind: Roadmap
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Tags: machines-wave3

## Sources

- FDA 510(k) K864210: microSelectron HDR (26 November 1986): https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K864210
- FDA 510(k) K891131: GammaMed 12i (7 August 1989): https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K891131
- FDA 510(k) K071381: GammaMedplus iX (18 July 2007): https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K071381
- FDA 510(k) K070574: Flexitron (13 April 2007): https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K070574
- Elekta: Flexitron afterloader: https://www.elekta.com/products/brachytherapy/flexitron/
- FDA 510(k) K142986: SagiNova (17 April 2015): https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K142986
- BEBIG Medical: SagiNova HDR afterloader: https://bebigmedical.com/product/hdr-brachytherapy/saginova.html
- BEBIG Medical: cobalt-60 in HDR brachytherapy: https://bebigmedical.com/product/Cobalt-60-in-HDR-Brachytherapy.html
- FDA 510(k) K181903: BRAVOS afterloader family (3 October 2018): https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K181903
- Siemens Healthineers: BRAVOS afterloader: https://cancercare.siemens-healthineers.com/products/brachytherapy/afterloaders-applicators/bravos
- FDA 510(k) K981112: Mobetron (24 July 1998): https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K981112
- FDA 510(k) K051055: INTRABEAM (23 May 2005): https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K051055
- FDA 510(k) K241174: INTRABEAM 700 (10 January 2025): https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K241174
- FDA 510(k) K781084: Therapax 150A (1978): https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K781084
- FDA 510(k) K050843: Xoft Axxent (22 December 2005): https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfpmn/pmn.cfm?ID=K050843

## Connected records

- roadmaps: [Devices and physical therapies roadmap: heat and light → electric fields and focused sound → drug-releasing implants](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/devices-roadmap/), [Radiotherapy roadmap: X-rays → shaped beams → fewer fractions, particles and FLASH](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/radiation-roadmap/)
- ideas: [Low-cost cobalt-60 brachytherapy for cervical cancer in every regional centre](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-acc-frugal-hdr-brachytherapy/)
- fronts: [Devices & Physical Therapies](https://onco.cc/fronts/devices/), [Radiation Therapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/radiation/)
- technologies: [Brachytherapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/brachytherapy/), [Electronic brachytherapy (Xoft Axxent, Esteya)](https://onco.cc/technologies/electronic-brachytherapy-systems/), [Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT)](https://onco.cc/technologies/intraoperative-radiotherapy/), [Intraoperative radiotherapy machines (INTRABEAM, Mobetron, LIAC, NOVAC)](https://onco.cc/technologies/iort-systems/), [Remote afterloaders for HDR brachytherapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/brachytherapy-afterloaders/), [Superficial and orthovoltage radiotherapy for skin cancer](https://onco.cc/technologies/superficial-radiotherapy/)
- companies: [Carl Zeiss Meditec](https://onco.cc/companies/carl-zeiss-meditec/), [Eckert & Ziegler](https://onco.cc/companies/eckert-ziegler/), [Elekta](https://onco.cc/companies/elekta/), [iCAD (RadNet)](https://onco.cc/companies/icad/), [IntraOp Medical](https://onco.cc/companies/intraop-medical/), [Sensus Healthcare](https://onco.cc/companies/sensus-healthcare/), [SIT Sordina IORT Technologies](https://onco.cc/companies/sit-sordina-iort/), [Varian (Siemens Healthineers)](https://onco.cc/companies/varian/), [Xstrahl](https://onco.cc/companies/xstrahl/)
- trials: [TARGIT-A (targeted intraoperative radiotherapy)](https://onco.cc/trials/targit-a/)
- bottlenecks: [Most of the world has almost no cancer care](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-global-access/), [Not enough oncologists, nurses, pathologists, physicists](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-workforce/), [Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-surgery-radiation-innovation/)
- cancers: [Cervical cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/cervical/)

---
JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/brachytherapy-iort-machines-roadmap.json