Prostate treatment 95% effective, study shows

A study of early diagnosed prostate cancer patients suggests that 95 per cent of men treated using brachytherapy-- the planting of a radioactive particle in the prostate -- have had their cancer cured.

The results of the study of 1,006 consecutive patients treated through the BC Cancer Agency's prostate brachytherapy program from 1998 to 2003 will be published in this week's edition of the medical journal Urology.

The cancer agency said 95 per cent of men did not experience a biochemical recurrence--a rise in the blood level of PSA (prostate-specific antigen)--following brachytherapy,"which indicates a likely cure of prostate cancer."

"These are excellent results, demonstrating that brachytherapy should be considered the gold-standard treatment for men with localized prostate cancer,"Dr. Mira Keyes, head of the BC Cancer Agency's brachytherapy program, said Wednesday.
"We have only had one patient whose cancer reoccurred after five years."

Localized prostate cancer is early-stage cancer which has not spread outside of the prostate.

Men in the study group also experienced low rates of metastasis--spread of cancer--and death from cancer, she said.

To date, over 2,500 men have been treated by the agency using brachytherapy.

Other forms of treatment for prostate cancer are surgery to remove the cancer mass, or external beam radiation to destroy it.

Keyes said the agency has developed a fourth method called active surveillance, in which a man diagnosed in the early stages of prostate cancer will have his condition monitored and will be treated only if the cancer advances.

Keyes said the sexual potency rate is higher with brachytherapy than with surgery.