Brachytherapy

There are several ways of giving radiation dosage to a cancerous tumor. The most common method is to deliver the required dosage from an external beam of radiation produced outside the body. In this case the source of radiation beam is located 80-100 cm from the body of the person receiving radiation. Sometimes placing the source of radiation within the tumor might have advantages over delivering radiation from an external source. This method of delivering required radiation from an internal source embedded within the tumor is called brachytherapy.

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Like many other forms of cancer treatment, there are positives and negatives to the use of Brachytherapy. While there is a lot of information that is provided by your doctor, it is often a good idea to gather further information before deciding to choose a particular treatment.

Radiation therapy for prostate cancer is one of the more common alternatives to a radical prostate removal. It involves sending a beam of radiation directly into the prostate gland to kill cancerous cells and hopefully not affect the surrounding normal tissue. However there is a less drastic alternative for localized cancer confined only to the prostate gland. Known as brachytherapy, this treatment consists of injecting small, rice-sized grains of radioactive material, usually iodine or palladium, directly into the prostate gland. This article will examine the bracytherapy procedure, its details, and possible side effects.

Prostate cancer has many possible treatments, and often different treatments are used together to achieve the best results. One method of treatment is Brachytherapy, which is when a number of radiation seeds are implanted into the tumour in the prostate gland. The seeds then give a dose of radiation to the tumour over a period of time, usual several months although this varies.

Mesothelioma Pleural is a lethal cancer that initially affects the thin membrane enveloping the lungs. This affliction is mostly caused by exposure to asbestos. Currently about 3000 cases are reported in the United States every year. But according to reliable estimates, nearly 8 million people have been exposed to asbestos during the past fifty years and about .3 million new cases would turn up by 2030. Higher rate of incidence is noted in the Pacific and Mid-Atlantic States.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the United States and it is the second most common cause of cancer death in men over age 55. Treatment by surgery or radiation has a 75% impotence rate plus possible incontinence problems. Fortunately, there are other approaches that can give men a much better outcome.

Conventional therapies are probably the most common form of breast cancer treatment that people are aware of, however, many do not fully realize what they imply. Health care professionals use these treatments because, the best available scientific research has shown them to be safe and effective. But wait... there's more!

Once diagnosed with prostate cancer, if the decision is made to treat the cancer with radiation, then the patient will receive one of two different possible radiation treatments. The stage of the cancer that the patient has will determine which type of radiation treatment the physician will recommend.

Prostate cancer is often curable, especially if the disease it caught in the earlier stages. Nowadays, approximately 90% of all prostate cancer diagnoses are made in the earlier stages and out of those, almost 100% of the patients have a relative survival rate of over five years.