Home | About Brachytherapy | The Urologist's Role

Brachytherapy, in the form of permanent interstitial implants, provides an effective and convenient treatment option for the prostate cancer patient who is not the ideal surgical candidate due to age or existing medical conditions. In addition, other patients, unwilling to undergo a surgical procedure due to fear of impotence or incontinence, may be more favorably disposed to consider this form of treatment.

Working as a team, with a radiation oncologist, the urologist's knowledge and expertise of the prostatic anatomy enables the precise delivery of an InterSource®  implant dose. The urologist follows a predefined plan to precisely insert needles through the perineum and into the prostate while the patient is under anesthesia. The radiation oncologist then deposits the sources into the prostate through the needles. The procedure often takes less than one hour, and the patient is usually discharged the same day. Post treatment morbidity is typically minimal and most patients are able to resume normal activity within 24 to 48 hours.

Published ten-year results indicate outcomes at least equal to those of surgery while achieving lower rates of incontinence and impotence.

Reference

Ragde, Elgamal, Snow, Brandt, Bartolucci, Nadir, Korb. Ten-Year Disease Free Survival after Transperineal Sonography-Guided Iodine-125 Brachytherapy with or without 45-Gray External Beam Irradiation in the Treatment of Patients with Clinically Localized, Low to High Gleason Grade Prostate Carcinoma. Cancer, 83: 989-1001 (1998).

Sharkey, Chovnick, Behar, Perez, Otheguy, Solc, Huff, Cantor. Outpatient Ultrasound-Guided Palladium 103 Brachytherapy for Localized Adenocarcinoma of the Prostate: A Preliminary Report of 434 Patients. Urology 51 (5), 796-803, (1998).

Stone, Ramin, Wesson, Stock, Unger, Klein. Laparoscopic Pelvic Lymph Node Dissection Combined with Real-Time Interactive Transrectal Ultrasound Guided Transperineal Radioactive Seed Implantation of the Prostate, Journal of Urology, Vol.153, 1555-1560, (1995).

Priestly, Beyer. Guided Brachytherapy for Treatment of Confined Prostate Cancer. Urology 40 (1), (1992).

Dattoli, M.D., M., et al, Pd-103 Brachytherapy and External Beam Irradiation for Clinically Localized, High-Risk Prostatic Carcinoma. International Journal Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, Vol. 35, No. 5, 875-879 (1996).

Blasko, M.D., J.C., et al, Should Brachytherapy be Considered a Therapeutic Option in Localized Prostate Cancer? Atlas of the Urologic Clinics of North America 23: 1033-1036 (1996).

Porter, M.D., A.T., et al, Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer. CA a Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Vol.45, No. 3, 165-178 (1995).

Grimm, D.O., P.D., et al, Ultrasound-guided Transperineal Implantation of Iodine-125 and Palladium 103 for the Treatment of Early-stage Prostate Cancer. Atlas of the Urologic clinics of North America, Vol. 2, No. 2, 113-125 (1994).