A general-purpose brachytherapy applicator designed to facilitate delivery of radiation therapy treatments that are not specific to a particular anatomical region. It is an individual or modular device designed to facilitate manual placement, e.g., puncture, topical placement, endoscopically guided placement or diagnostic imaging system guided placement, and removal of single or multiple radioactive sources at a treatment site. The device may be a fixed design or designed to facilitate the creation of variable physical configurations or individual patient source placement configurations and includes general-purpose applicators such as hollow needles, tubes or catheters, ovoids or tandems.