Radiation Seeds for Prostate Cancer

If the cancer is detected early, it is easy to treat and can be cured. However, in the advanced stages treatment is difficult, and it is incurable if the disease spreads to organs such as bones and lymph nodes. There are many treatment options for prostate cancer. Each option needs to be considered carefully, taking into consideration the individual‘s age, overall health and so on.

Treatment Options

The treatment methods that have been traditionally used include Watchful waiting (without any treatment), Surgery (radical prostatectomy), and External beam therapy (EBT). However, there are modern treatment methods developed and used in the last 10-15 years. These newer methods are more effective, and minimize the unpleasant side effects you may face with the traditional therapies.

One of these methods, Radiation Therapy is often used to treat pancreatic cancer, mostly in advanced cases and older patients (to avoid surgery).There are several different forms of radiation therapy, such as external beam, brachytherapy or seed implantation, high dose interstitial radiation, and several forms of combined therapy.

Seed Implantation or Brachytheraphy

In seed implantation or Brachytheraphy, radiation oncologists place (under anesthesia) small radioactive seeds, about the size of a grain of rice, into your prostate. This is done by inserting needles containing the seeds, using ultrasound guidance, through the skin of your perineum (the area between the scrotum and anus). These seeds irradiate and kill the cancer cells, and remain in your prostate for a number of months. Either radioactive Iodine (I -125) or palladium (Pd-103) is used for the radioactive seeds.

Seed implantation is an effective treatment when the cancer is localized to the prostate, requires no surgical incision, and requires a short recovery time. It can be an outpatient procedure and most men go home the same day. Also, you can return to your normal activities a few days after treatment. The biggest advantage is that two to three times as much radiation can given to you compared to external beam therapy, with very less radiation affecting the surrounding tissues. The success rate is often very high because of these reasons.