Prostate Brachytherapy Causes Less Side Effects than Surgery

With prostate surgery, called a radical prostatectomy, a surgeon removes the prostate. During prostate brachytherapy, a radiation oncologist places radioactive seeds, similar to the size of a grain of rice, into the prostate to destroy the cancer.

In this study, conducted by investigators from the Institut Curie (Paris, France), 435 men with prostate cancer were surveyed before treatment, immediately after treatment, and subsequently at follow-up exams to assess their quality of life and treatment-related side effects against predefined materials given to them by the clinicians. The clinicians discovered that brachytherapy is a more costly procedure at the beginning, but that follow-up costs related to surgery cause both treatments to cost approximately the same.

Surgery had more significant side effects immediately following treatment, but those effects improved steadily over two years. Brachytherapy, however, demonstrated moderate, but persistent side effects over the two years. Urinary incontinence was more common after surgery; however, urinary irritation was a more typical complaint from those who received brachytherapy. Impairment of sexual function was found to be consistently higher among those who received surgery than those who received brachytherapy.

"This study is exciting because it's the first time we have a comparative study to assess the costs in a given country and see if the side effects are different for patients who received surgery or brachytherapy,” said Jean-Marc Cosset, M.D., one of the investigators of the study, and a radiation oncologist in the department of radiation oncology at the Institut Curie. "By looking at these factors, we are better able to tailor a suitable treatment option for the individual patient.”


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