Prostate Cancer Treatment Radiation Pellets
It involves implanting radioactive pellets in your prostate.
Prostate cancer treatment radiation pellets. Internal radiation therapy irt or brachytherapy involves placing radioactive pellets inside the body on the prostate gland. The pellets are around the size of a grain of rice according to. It delivers radiation from small radioactive seeds or pellets each the size of a grain of rice that. You may hear it called internal radiation therapy.
A newer type of radiation involving the implantation of radioactive pellets or seeds into the prostate gland has also become popular over the past few years. 28 2000 chicago tens of thousands of men with prostate cancer are coming home with radioactive pellets permanently implanted in the small gland in their groin but new research says. Brachytherapy works from the inside out. In a brachytherapy procedure small radioactive pellets are inserted into the prostate delivering a concentrated radiation dose to the cancerous area.
The pellets release radiation over a period of days or weeks. In the last few years a new treatment option has been added which makes use of tiny radioactive pellets about the size of a staple which is directly place into the prostate using hollow needles. Radiation therapy can be delivered external to the body but the high energy radiation waves also may cause injury to the surrounding tissue such as the bladder and the rectum. Prostate brachytherapy brachytherapy is a procedure to implant radioactive seeds pellets into the prostate gland to kill prostate cancer cells.
It s a good option for early stage or low grade prostate cancer. There are two types of. Internal radiation therapy brachytherapy. The best treatment for prostate cancer that is confined to the gland itself is radical surgery or radiation therapy.
Brachytherapy or internal radiation therapy are also terms used to describe this procedure. Other therapies used in the treatment of prostate cancer that are still under investigation include. This was the treatment recently. A machine outside the body directs radiation at the cancer cells.
Radioactive seed implants are a form of radiation therapy for prostate cancer.