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Current Status of Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer

Brachytherapy was developed to treat prostate cancer 50 years ago. Current advanced techniques using transrectal ultrasonography were established 25 years ago. Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) has enabled the prostate to be viewed with improved resolution with the use of modern ultrasound machines. Mor...

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Autor principal: Park, Dong Soo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Korean Urological Association 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3502731/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23185664
http://dx.doi.org/10.4111/kju.2012.53.11.743
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author Park, Dong Soo
author_facet Park, Dong Soo
author_sort Park, Dong Soo
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description Brachytherapy was developed to treat prostate cancer 50 years ago. Current advanced techniques using transrectal ultrasonography were established 25 years ago. Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) has enabled the prostate to be viewed with improved resolution with the use of modern ultrasound machines. Moreover, the development of software that can provide images captured in real time has improved treatment outcomes. Other new radiologic imaging technologies or a combination of magnetic resonance and TRUS could be applied to brachytherapy in the future. The therapeutic value of brachytherapy for early-stage prostate cancer is comparable to that of radical prostatectomy in long-term follow-up. Nevertheless, widespread application of brachytherapy cannot be achieved for several reasons. The treatment outcome of brachytherapy varies according to the skill of the operator and differences in patient selection. Currently, only three radioactive isotopes are available for use in low dose rate prostate brachytherapy: I-125, Pd-103, and Cs-131; therefore, more isotopes should be developed. High dose rate brachytherapy using Ir-192 combined with external beam radiation, which is needed to verify the long-term effects, has been widely applied in high-risk patient groups. Recently, tumor-selective therapy or focal therapy using brachytherapy, which is not possible by surgical extraction, has been developed to maintain the quality of life in selected cases. However, this new application for prostate cancer treatment should be performed cautiously because we do not know the oncological outcome, and it would be an interim treatment method. This technique might evolve into a hybrid of whole-gland treatment and focal therapy.
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spelling pubmed-35027312012-11-26 Current Status of Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer Park, Dong Soo Korean J Urol Review Article Brachytherapy was developed to treat prostate cancer 50 years ago. Current advanced techniques using transrectal ultrasonography were established 25 years ago. Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) has enabled the prostate to be viewed with improved resolution with the use of modern ultrasound machines. Moreover, the development of software that can provide images captured in real time has improved treatment outcomes. Other new radiologic imaging technologies or a combination of magnetic resonance and TRUS could be applied to brachytherapy in the future. The therapeutic value of brachytherapy for early-stage prostate cancer is comparable to that of radical prostatectomy in long-term follow-up. Nevertheless, widespread application of brachytherapy cannot be achieved for several reasons. The treatment outcome of brachytherapy varies according to the skill of the operator and differences in patient selection. Currently, only three radioactive isotopes are available for use in low dose rate prostate brachytherapy: I-125, Pd-103, and Cs-131; therefore, more isotopes should be developed. High dose rate brachytherapy using Ir-192 combined with external beam radiation, which is needed to verify the long-term effects, has been widely applied in high-risk patient groups. Recently, tumor-selective therapy or focal therapy using brachytherapy, which is not possible by surgical extraction, has been developed to maintain the quality of life in selected cases. However, this new application for prostate cancer treatment should be performed cautiously because we do not know the oncological outcome, and it would be an interim treatment method. This technique might evolve into a hybrid of whole-gland treatment and focal therapy. The Korean Urological Association 2012-11 2012-11-14 /pmc/articles/PMC3502731/ /pubmed/23185664 http://dx.doi.org/10.4111/kju.2012.53.11.743 Text en © The Korean Urological Association, 2012 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Park, Dong Soo
Current Status of Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer
title Current Status of Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer
title_full Current Status of Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer
title_fullStr Current Status of Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer
title_full_unstemmed Current Status of Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer
title_short Current Status of Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer
title_sort current status of brachytherapy for prostate cancer
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3502731/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23185664
http://dx.doi.org/10.4111/kju.2012.53.11.743
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