In a nutshell
The present study evaluated survival rates in patients with prostate cancer (PC) treated with Low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy (LDR-PB). The main findings were that LDR-PB alone or combined with hormone therapy offers excellent survival in PC patients.
Some background
Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men. Treatment options include surgery to remove the prostate gland, hormone therapy or different types of radiotherapy. LDR-PB is a type of radiotherapy. It uses a small radioactive particle the size of a rice which is implanted directly into the tumor. Therefore, it sends high doses of radiation directly into the cancer, without affecting the surrounding tissues. This means that this procedure causes less damage compared to conventional radiotherapy where the radioactive beam is placed outside the body and needs to pass through healthy tissue to reach the cancer.
Methods & findings
The study included 1006 patients with low-grade (T1 to T2a tumor size) or intermediate-grade (T2b to T2c) prostate cancer. All patients were treated with LDR-PB. 65% of patients also received 6 months of hormone therapy (3 months before and 3 months after LDR-PB). Cancer-free survival (defined as living men cured of the disease) at 5 and 10 years after treatment was 96.7% and 94.1% respectively. Cancer-specific survival at 10 years (defined as the percentage of people who have not died due to prostate cancer 10 years after treatment) was 99.1%. Overall survival (the percentage of patients who are still alive after a time from diagnosis) at 5 and 10 years after treatment was 93.8% and 83.5% respectively.
The bottom line
In conclusion, treatment with LDR-PB with or without additional hormone therapy provides very good survival rates for patients with prostate cancer.
The fine print
However, the study only included patients with low and intermediate-grade prostate cancer. Further studies are necessary to determine survival rates for patients with high risk (stage T3 and T4) disease.
What’s next?
Consult with your doctor to see if this procedure is appropriate for you.
Published By :
Cancer
Date :
Dec 26, 2012
