Article
Brachytherapy Improves PFS and Is Cost-Effective in Prostate Cancer, Study Reports
While brachytherapy improved progression-free survival in men with prostate cancer, compared with traditional readiotherapy, the study found that overall survival was not very different between the 2 groups.
A prostate cancer treatment using permanently implanted radioactive “seeds” doubles rates of 5-year tumour-free survival compared with conventional high-dose radiotherapy, a study has found.
Low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy (LDR-PB) involves the insertion of tiny radioactive implants into the prostate gland. A trial comparing the treatment with dose-escalated external beam radiotherapy found that it was much more successful at banishing cancer. Men who underwent LDR-PB were twice as likely to be cancer-free 5 years later. Scientists studied 398 men with cancer that had not spread outside the prostate gland who were judged to be at high risk of treatment failure based on standard test results.
Lead researcher Professor James Morris, from Vancouver Cancer Centre in Canada, said: “At five years follow-up, we saw a large advantage in progression-free survival in the LDR-PB group.
Link to the complete article on The Guardian: http://bit.ly/1EciTDF
