eng Science and Education Publishing Journal of Cancer Research and Treatment 2013-12-05 1 2 42 44 10.12691/jcrt-1-2-5 JCRT2013125 article Sunilkar Singh Reddy ssreddy74@yahoo.com 1 Department of Medicine, Manipal University, India High-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy is typically used for the treatment of lung, esophagus, breast, bronchus, and prostate cancer as well as gynecological cancers. In HDR brachytherapy, radiation is delivered to the tumor through the catheters placed in or adjacent to the tumor. The primary goal of this article is to provide the overview of current literature regarding the application of HDR planning and optimization techniques. A summary of commonly used optimization technique known as heuristics method (stochastic and deterministic) is also provided. http://pubs.sciepub.com/jcrt/1/2/5/jcrt-1-2-5.pdf HDRbrachytherapytreatment planningoptimization