Men with prostate cancer have a slightly better long-term side effects profile with radiation seed implants than they do with surgery, according to a study released today in the International Journal for Radiation Oncology-Biology-Physics, the official journal of ASTRO.
Doctors in France conducted the first-ever multi-institutional, comparative study of men with early stage prostate cancer to evaluate a man's quality of life, treatment-related side effects and cost of the treatment based on the type of treatment the patient received: surgery or seed implants, both widely accepted modes of treatment for early-stage prostate cancer. 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 kill the cancer.
In this study, 435 men with prostate cancer were surveyed before treatment, immediately after treatment and subsequently at follow-up exams to gauge their quality of life and treatment-related side effects against predefined materials given to them by the doctors. Doctors found that brachytherapy is a more expensive procedure at the outset, but that follow-up costs related to surgery cause both treatments to cost about the same.