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Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer
While Brachytherapy is used to treat many different types of cancer, it is most frequently used in the treatment of prostate cancer where it is as good or better at eradicating cancer than alternative methods of treatment.
Advantages of Brachytherapy in Prostate Cancer
Increasing numbers of men are opting for prostate Brachytherapy because:
- It is less expensive than invasive surgery
- Fewer side effects are experienced than with other procedures
- Recovery time is very short
- Quality of life including impotence and incontinence has a higher probability of being preserved
- Alternatives to Prostate Brachytherapy
The primary alternatives to prostate Brachytherapy are radical prostatectomy and external radiation therapy. Radical prostatectomy, the current "gold standard" treatment, is a major surgical procedure that requires lengthy recovery and often results in incontinence and/or impotence. External radiation therapy, while less traumatic than surgery, is extremely time consuming, requiring seven or eight weeks of five-times-a-week treatments. Although radical prostatectomy is currently the most prominent treatment for prostate cancer, the number of Brachytherapy treatment(s) is gaining popularity as physicians become aware of the procedure.
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