First BrachyAcademy APBI workshop in Japan

Seven years ago, Dr. Takashi Kawanaka from Japan attended the APBI BrachyAcademy workshop in Singapore. After returning home, he began implementing APBI with multicatheter brachytherapy for early breast cancer at his hospital.

On September 9–10, 2025, Dr. Kawanaka and his colleagues at Tokushima University Hospital hosted their own APBI BrachyAcademy workshop. This time, we welcomed 11 participants – radiation oncologists and medical physicists – from five hospitals in Japan, as well as colleagues from India and the Philippines.

We had an outstanding international faculty: Prof. Dr. Vratislav Strnad (Germany), Dr. Johann Tang (Singapore), Dr. Tibor Major (Hungary), and of course, the Tokushima team. The interactive program included lectures and discussions, observation of a live clinical case in the OR, hands-on training in catheter insertion & reconstruction, contouring & treatment planning.