Prostate cancer needs high doses of radiation to be cured. In order to avoid side effects, the best treatment currently available is brachytherapy. This treatment consists of placing radiation emitting sources inside the prostate, which allows prostate cancer to be cured with practically no sequelae. The radiation emitted by these capsules is of very short range, a few millimeters, so that it is restricted to the prostate, without irradiating neighboring healthy structures. They are placed under epidural anesthesia -they do no harm- and, once the anesthesia wears off, the patient goes home.
Usually, prostate cancer does not cause any discomfort or symptoms. Early diagnosis is made by means of a blood test in which the concentration of PSA, a prostate-specific antigen, is determined. In patients who have a tumor in the prostate, the PSA is usually elevated, and it is then that a biopsy must be performed. The only thing the patient has is this molecule elevated in the blood, but it does not cause any discomfort.
Close to 100% effectiveness
It is a treatment that today has a success rate of close to 100%. Moreover, the National Cancer Institute of the United States (NCI), the body in charge of coordinating all cancer research and treatments in the country, has confirmed that the 5-year survival rate for patients diagnosed with prostate cancer is 100%. There is no other tumor that has such a high survival rate, thanks to the high effectiveness of the treatments.