Radioactive Seed Therapy – Brachytherapy

[Joe_Trotter (imported)]

For treatment of low-risk Prostate Cancer, there are a number of available therapies.

Surgery, including cryo-surgery, external radiology, watchful-waiting, and radioactive seed therapy, or Brachytherapy. Don’t ask me to pronounce it.

Stable isotopes of some elements can be turned into radio-isotopes by bombarding them with neutrons – stick a test tube carrying element seeds into a nuclear reactor, leave it for a while, then pull it out. Presto – radio-isotopes. Many reactors have pneumatic tube-ways through them for just this purpose.

Palladium-103 is interesting. Created from stable Palladium-102, it has a half-life of just under 17 days. Every 17 days, the amount of Palladium-103 goes down by half as a result of radioactive decay. It discharges radiation mostly in the form of low-strength X-Rays.. Because of that, the effect of the radiation is very localized. Tiny amounts of Palladium-103 are inserted into Titanium pill carriers, and the tiny “seeds” are implanted in the prostate, surrounding the tumor. It takes many, because one is just not enough. The radiation is intense, but localized. After 60 days, almost all of the Palladium has decayed.

Other isotopes are also available, like Iodine-125

For most patients, the tumor is dead, with minimal damage to surrounding tissue for important things like the bladder, urethra, intestines, nerves to the base of the penis (think erection) and to the Kegel muscles – what women use to hold their urine. Men without a prostate need to control those same muscles, or be incontinent.

Brachytherapy is touted as the least invasive of the pro-active treatments.

More on these topics, here:

http://www.prostate-cancer.com/brachyth ... y-ldr.html

http://www.prostate-cancer.com/brachyth ... plant.html

http://finance.denverpost.com/mng-denve ... Ticker=ISR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium-102

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium-103

[John Sheraton (imported)]

Joe. great discourse, though a little more complex than it may be for someone making a decision on what to do if he has a problem.

But, praytell, how did your appointment go with your new Doctor at the clinci. I've got my fingers crossed that you're on "watchful waiting".