What is prostate brachytherapy through seed implant?

Prostate brachytherapy through seed implant is a form of radiation therapy used to treat prostate cancer.

What does the procedure involve?

The procedure involves placing radioactive sources in the prostate gland, where the radiation can kill the cancer cells while causing less damage to healthy tissue nearby. There are two types of prostate brachytherapy: high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy and low dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy.

HDR brachytherapy is a temporary type of prostate brachytherapy that involves placing radioactive sources in the prostate gland and delivering a high dose of radiation in a few minutes before the sources are removed. Typical treatment may involve several sessions.

LDR brachytherapy is permanent prostate brachytherapy that involves placing radioactive seeds in the prostate gland permanently, where they slowly release radiation over several months. LDR brachytherapy is also known as seed implants.

What happens during a prostate brachytherapy through seed implant procedure?

During this procedure, you may be placed under anesthesia so that you aren’t aware during the procedure and won’t feel pain. A wandlike instrument is inserted into your rectum. The doctor uses ultrasound images to guide the placement of the radioactive seeds into the prostate gland.

The seeds are placed in the prostate gland using several tiny needles that are inserted into the skin between the rectum and the scrotum. The number of seeds used depends on the size of the prostate gland. After the procedure, the seeds remain in the prostate gland and give off radiation for several months.

What is prostate brachytherapy designed for?

Prostate brachytherapy is used to treat prostate cancer. The procedure places radioactive sources within the prostate, so the cancer receives most of the radiation and nearby healthy tissue receives a minimal dose of radiation. If you have early-stage prostate cancer that’s less likely to spread beyond the prostate, brachytherapy may be the only treatment used.

For larger prostate cancers or those that have a greater chance of spreading beyond the prostate, brachytherapy may be used along with other treatments, such as external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) or hormone therapy. Prostate brachytherapy generally isn’t used for advanced prostate cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes or to distant areas of the body.

What are the associated side effects?

Prostate brachytherapy may cause side effects, including difficulty starting urination, frequently feeling an urgent need to urinate, pain or discomfort when urinating, needing to urinate at night, blood in the urine, not being able to empty your bladder completely, erectile dysfunction, bleeding from the rectum, blood in stool, and urgent bowel movements. Many side effects of prostate brachytherapy become less noticeable over time.

Some serious complications can occur after prostate brachytherapy, but these are rare. They include narrowing of the tube that carries urine from your bladder to the outside of your body (urethra), abnormal opening (fistula) in the wall of the rectum, and cancer in the bladder or rectum caused by radiation.