Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Prostate Brachytherapy Causes Fewer Side Effects than Surgery

Men with prostate cancer have a slightly better long-term side effects profile with radiation seed implants than they do with surgery, according to a study released today in the International Journal for Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, the official journal of ASTRO.

Doctors in France conducted the first-ever multi-institutional, comparative study of men with early stage prostate cancer to evaluate a man’s quality of life, treatment-related side effects and cost of the treatment based on the type of treatment the patient received: surgery or seed implants, both widely-accepted modes of treatment for early-stage prostate cancer. With prostate surgery, called a radical prostatectomy, a surgeon removes the prostate. During prostate brachytherapy, a radiation oncologist places radioactive seeds, similar to the size of a grain of rice, into the prostate to kill the cancer.

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