Two Types Of Radiation Therapy For prostate cancer

Radiotherapy is one of the many treatment options prostate cancer individual has to choose. This is a method that uses high energy x-rays or other types or energy. It aims to kill the most cancers cells or to keep the most cancers cells from growing back again.

There are two known types of therapy using radiation which may be used to treat prostate cancer. One is the actual external radiation therapy (XRT) which utilizes a machine or a medical equipment outside of the body and is capable of sending radiation. The other one is the internal radiation therapy which uses radioactive substance like in the brachytherapy.

An example of an external radiation therapy may be the IMRT or the Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy wherein multiple beams coming from many different directions are used to focused on the prospective area- the prostate gland. The physicians were able to adjust the strength and the strength of the beams based on the computerized program before the operation. This is important so that more radiation will blast the actual tumors or the cancer cells and less is delivered to the surrounding organs like bladder and rectum.

In Brachytherapy, some tiny radioactive capsules which they call “seeds” tend to be implanted into the cancerous prostate gland glands. These seeds will then give off radiation to the surrounding areas aiming to kill all the cancerous tumors. Men that are identified as having prostate cancer at stage T1 or T2 have been demonstrated to be candidate for this kind of treatment.

The oncologist first results in a 3-D grid map area of prostate gland using TRUS or Transrectal Ultrasound. The computer will then calculates the volume from the gland; determine the number of seeds that will be implanted and also to figure out the location of the implantation.

The procedure would consider about 50 to 60 minutes to finish and usually on an outpatient basis. The patient is only provided a regional anesthesia before a needle with about One hundred or more rice-sized seeds are placed to a predetermined area. These types of seeds contain the radioactive isotopes of palladium 103 and iodine 125 capable of emitting radiation for a period of three months. These types of isotopes will become inert after the three month period.

There are side effects the actual men are suffering when treated with radiation. Impotence as well as urinary system problems is the most common ones. Men who went through the radiation treatment have a greater risk of rectal cancer and also bladder most cancers. A small number of patients who have gone through brachytherapy especially those over the age of 70 are also noted to have experience impotence or incontinence.

With the technologies of ours today, period will come the percentage of men is going to be fully recovered after the radiation or other treatment options they gone through. Gather more information through going to http://www.ProstateRadiation.org.
What are the different types of keyhole surgery? Larascopic Surgical Techniques Explained

We thank you taking the time to visit our website
and hope that we were able to assist you in your search for the information that you are looking for.
We do realize that with many articles written, it is possible
and even likely that you will find errors along the way.
We would appreciate you using the “contact us” page to let us know if you come across any mistakes
in our articles or if you simply have some ideas for articles that you would like to see in the future.
Thanks again for taking the time to visit,
we hope you have enjoyed it and hope that you will visit us again someday very soon.