Brachytherapy is a form of radiation treatment for the prostate where radioactive seeds are implanted into the prostate gland and can sometimes be called internal radiotherapy. Radiotherapy uses high energy waves to try to treat the cancer.
Brachytherapy involves a general anaesthetic and is a newer treatment compared with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). The aim of placing seeds directly into the prostate is to direct the therapy, localising the area treated and minimising the risk of surrounding areas being damaged by radiotherapy.
There are two kinds of brachytherapy - low and high dose. One involves the seeds being implanted and carried by the person, whilst the other involves the radiation being inserted for the duration of the operation and then removed.
Sometimes brachytherapy may be combined with EBRT. Hormone therapy is not usually given with brachytherapy, unless the prostate gland is too large to be treated with brachytherapy, in which case it is used to shrink the prostate gland before brachytherapy.
Some men opt for brachytherapy as it involves only 1 or 2 trips to hospital for the tretament and it is particularly used for localised prostate cancer. In Scotland, currently this therapy is only available via the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow and the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh.
One aspect of brachytherapy is that some of the side effects of EBRT can be lessened as the treatment is localised. Side effects of brachytherapy can include problems with erections (impotence), difficulty in passing urine and some bleeding from the rectum.
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