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- La Ribera Health Department La Ribera University Hospital has integrated the high dose brachytherapy to treat prostate cancer. It’s regarding a advanced radiotherapy technique whose results are comparable to those of surgery, but with greater advantages.
So the patient benefits from his short duration, around 10-15 minutes, and that it is performed on an outpatient basis, so that they can go home the same day as the operation, following a short observation period.
To carry out this technique, the Alzira hospital has invested 163 000 euros in the acquisition of an ultrasound scanner and the necessary software. La Ribera Hospital thus becomes the second public hospital in the Valencian Community to incorporate this technology, following La Fe.
According to Dr. Miguel Soler, head of the radiotherapy department at the University Hospital of La Ribera, “high-dose brachytherapy is a radiotherapy treatment that involves the introduction of a radioactive source into the tumor, in order toadminister more radiation over a longer period of time. »
In fact, “the tumoricidal doses that can be achieved with this technique are the highest achieved in radiotherapy and, therefore, the possibility of controlling the disease is greater,” said Dr. Soler, adding that “additionally, the radiation dose is concentrated in the tumor and, therefore, causes less damage to adjacent healthy tissue (bladder and rectum), keeping them free from radiation”.
To perform this technique, the patient is subjected to a spinal anesthesia (so he remains awake throughout the procedure) and, using a high-resolution ultrasound, he is placed with the perineum.
Once they have been inserted into the sinus of the prostate, and in the same operating room, the radiation dose that the patient should receive is calculated and applied. “The fact that this calculation is carried out at the same time as the procedure, and not a few days before, as in other types of techniques, promotes reliability during tumor removal,” said Dr. Soler.
After the procedure, the tubes are removed from the patient, who remains under observation for approximately one hour, following which he can go home. According to the head of the radiotherapy department of the Alcireño hospital, “it is a totally painless technique, minimally invasive, without bleeding and very well tolerated by patients”.
Furthermore, “when the radioactive sources are eliminated, the patient does not need to maintain any type of isolation from children and pregnant women, as in the case of low-rate radioactive seed brachytherapy, in which the patient maintains the radioactive sources inside the prostate for some time. days “.
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high dose rate brachytherapy “is indicated at any stage and degree of aggressiveness of the disease, whether it is localized in the prostate or whether it affects the surrounding tissues”.
The University Hospital of La Ribera will apply this technique to patients who cannot undergo surgery because they have undergone transurethral resection of the prostate for benign disease, because they have already been treated with surgery, external radiotherapy or brachytherapy with low rate seeds or , simply because these are patients who do not want to be treated with surgery. About 70 patients should benefit from this technique every year in La Ribera.
According to Dr. Soler, “this technique can be used as an exclusive treatment for early-stage prostate cancer or combined with external radiotherapy and/or hormone therapy, as advised by the individualized study of each case”.
prostate cancer cancer of the prostate is one of the most common tumors in men, but with a very good prognosis, since the 5-year survival rate is 85% for patients whose tumors are discovered at an early stage.
It is a disease that affects the cells of the prostate, a gland the size of a chestnut, located under the urine bladder, and which surrounds the urethra.
Normally, the cells of this gland grow and divide in an orderly fashion. When this process fails, the cells divide abnormally and rapidly, resulting in prostate tumor or cancer that can invade every year regarding 150 cases of prostate cancer.
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