FIGHT CANCER OUTSIDE THE PROSTATE

Studies have found that men with higher tumor stage and grade were more likely not to be cured by radiation seeds (which makes sense, considering that most implantation programs don’t do anything to fight cancer outside the prostate).

 Also, some studies have found that a significant number of men—20 percent in one study—who got radioactive iodine implants required radical prostatectomy to help fight cancer that had returned. With external-beam radiation therapy, this number is much lower, about 8 percent. (Note: Many urologists feel that radical prostatectomy after any radiation treatment is not going to be very successful and will not perform the operation on these men.)

And in studies comparing seed implantation’s results in controlling cancer to other therapies, the seeds have come in a distinct third to radical protectorate and external-beam radiation therapy. In no major study has interstitial brachytherapy ever proved a better method than the other two main forms of treatment for prostate cancer. However, many studies looking at “relapse-free survival” have shown, at ten years after seed implantation, that 58 percent or more of men are still alive and cancer-free, and one study found that 53 percent of men who didn’t have cancer in the lymph nodes were alive and cancer-free after fifteen years. The bottom line from a host of studies seems to be that seed implantation—if it doesn’t ultimately cure prostate cancer—can at least delay it significantly, for years.