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DG DISPATCH - AUA: Prostate cancer brachytherapy results in high cure rate By Emma Patten Special to DG News ATLANTA, GA -- May 4, 2000 -- A 12-year follow-up study indicates that brachytherapy, the implantation of tiny radioactive seeds in the prostate, is a highly effective treatment for prostate cancer patients. The findings were presented Wednesday (May 3) by Haakon Ragde, MD, from the Northwest Prostate Institute, in Seattle, WA, at the American Urological Association's 95th annual conference, in Atlanta, GA. The researchers found that high-risk prostate cancer patients treated with a combination of external beam radiation and prostate brachytherapy displayed an overall cure rate of 70 percent after 12 years. Dr. Ragde and colleagues examined 229 patients with prostate cancer at the clinical stages T1-T3, low to high Gleason grade, who were treated between January 1987 and September 1989. Of these patients, 147 received radioactive iodine brachytherapy alone, and the remaining 82 patients, who were at higher risk of extraprostatic extension, were also treated with external beam irradiation to the pelvis. Of the 215 patients with sufficient follow-up, 66 percent of patients receiving brachytherapy alone and 69 percent of patients receiving brachytherapy and external beam irradiation remained clinically and biochemically free of disease at last follow-up. Combined, the two groups displayed an overall cure rate of 70 percent. "Prostate cancer patients who were treated with transperineal brachytherapy showed a cure rate comparable to surgery. This strongly demonstrates the therapeutic value of prostate brachytherapy," noted Dr. Ragde. "Our cure rate for high risk patients is by far the best ever reported for such patients," he added. Dr. Ragde also pointed out that "conformal prostate brachytherapy is poised to assume a major role in modern medicine and may well serve as a model for cancer treatments at other body sites." E-mail this page to a friend or colleague! To print, use this version