Abstract
Brachytherapy is a type of radiation therapy that allows for the delivery of highly conformal radiation for prostate cancer in the setting of monotherapy for low-risk disease and as a boost for intermediate- to high-risk patients. There are two types of brachytherapy, high-dose-rate (HDR) and low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy, both of which may be used as monotherapy or boost. HDR brachytherapy may offer advantages over LDR including improved accuracy of treatment, toxicities, and radiation safety issues. Brachytherapy has been shown to have similar biochemical control (BC) compared to radical prostatectomy (RP) or external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and therefore is a good therapeutic option for appropriately selected patients. We have reviewed the results of 474 patients treated with HDR monotherapy at William Beaumont Hospital, and the results show that BC rates are similar to that of RP or EBRT with low rates of high-grade chronic genitourinary or gastrointestinal toxicities.
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McGee, M., Ghilezan, M., Martinez, A. (2012). High-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy for the Treatment of Low-, Intermediate-, and High-Risk Prostate Cancer. In: Ponsky, L., Fuller, D., Meier, R., Ma, C. (eds) Robotic Radiosurgery. Treating Prostate Cancer and Related Genitourinary Applications. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11495-3_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11495-3_10
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