The patients with prostate cancer treated with brachitherapy have better quality of life than those treated with external radiation-therapy or those who have undergone the extirpation of the prostate. This is the conclusion reached by a study led by ICO, the Bellvitge Hospital and the Institut Municipal d'Investigació Mèdica* and which has been published in International Journal of Radiation Oncology-Biology-Physics. In this study another eleven sanitary centres from all over Spain have participated.
Prostate cancer is the most frequent among men in Spain. In Catalonia, 3,500 cases are diagnosed every year. Nowadays, more than 70% of the cases are cured, but the treatment may be accompanied by side effects that have an influence on the quality of life.
Telephone survey
The research has been based on telephone interviews before the treatment and after 3, 12 and 24 months to 275 patients treated with brachitherapy, 205 with external radiation-therapy and 134 whose prostate had been extirpated.
The results indicate that brachitherapy with iodine-125 seeds is the treatment which implies less impotence problems or other sexual malfunctions and is the one which affects least the patients’ quality of life.
* Municipal Institute of Medical Research
|
