Cancer News Around the Web
February 28, 2020
Patient-Reported Outcomes Through 5 Years for Active Surveillance, Surgery, Brachytherapy, or External Beam Radiation With or Without Androgen Deprivation Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer (copy 1)
Question: What are the comparative harms of contemporary treatments for localized prostate cancer through 5 years?...
January 21, 2020
Long‐term oncological and functional follow‐up in low dose rate brachytherapy (LDR‐BT) for prostate cancer: results from the prospective nation‐wide Swiss Registry
Objective: To evaluate the long‐term oncological, functional and toxicity outcomes of LDR‐BT in relation to risk factors and radiation dose in a prospective multicenter cohort...
January 19, 2020
Clinical outcomes of low-dose-rate brachytherapy based radiotherapy for intermediate risk prostate cancer
Intermediate-risk prostate cancer patients represent the largest of the risk groups and comprise a heterogeneous population of patients with variable prognoses...
December 23, 2019
Prostate brachytherapy procedural training: incorporation of related procedures in resident training and competency assessment
Purpose: Inadequate procedural training is of increasing concern in resident training, especially in prostate brachytherapy (PB). Transperineal rectal spacer placement (TRSP) requires many of the same proficiencies as PB. This work describes the assessment of teaching techniques focusing on developing critical competencies for PB using related clinical procedures (TRSP)...
December 23, 2019
Detection of individual prostate cancer via multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging in own material – initial experience
Purpose: Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) is an evolving non-invasive imaging modality that increases the accurate localization of prostate cancer (PCa) at the time of MRI targeted biopsy, enhancing clinical risk assessment, and improving the ability to appropriately counsel patients regarding therapy...
December 10, 2019
A Brief Review of Low-Dose Rate (LDR) and High-Dose Rate (HDR) Brachytherapy Boost for High-Risk Prostate
For patients with unfavorable or high-risk prostate cancer, dose escalated radiation therapy leads to improved progression free survival but attempts to deliver increased dose by external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) alone can be limited by late toxicities to nearby genitourinary and gastrointestinal organs at risk...
November 11, 2019
Progress in Low Dose Rate Brachytherapy for Prostate Cancer
Low dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy has a proven critical role in achieving the modern standard of successful prostate cancer treatment, cure with quality of life (QoL) preservation. In the past decade, cure has been demonstrated in the most lethal form of prostate cancer treated with combined external beam and LDR brachytherapy...
November 07, 2019
Comparative effectiveness of surgery versus external beam radiation with/without brachytherapy in high‐risk localized prostate cancer
Background: It remains controversial if radical prostatectomy or definitive radiation therapy produces equivalent outcomes in high‐risk localized prostate cancer...
November 05, 2019
Ten-Year Treatment Outcomes of Radical Prostatectomy vs External Beam Radiation Therapy vs Brachytherapy for 1,503 Patients with Intermediate Risk Prostate Cancer
Purpose: To compare 10-year oncologic treatment outcomes of radical prostatectomy (RP) vs external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) vs brachytherapy (BT) for patients with intermediate risk prostate cancer (IRPC)...
October 30, 2019
Single fraction high-dose-rate brachytherapy as monotherapy for low and intermediate risk prostate cancer: toxicities and early outcomes from a single institutional experience
Purpose: High-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT) delivered in a single fraction as monotherapy is a potential treatment modality for low- and intermediate-risk prostate cancer...
October 16, 2019
Comparison of outcome endpoints in intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer after combined-modality radiotherapy
Purpose: To compare a standard radio-oncological and a surgical biochemical failure definition after combined-modality radiation therapy (CRT) in men with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer...
September 05, 2019
Discrepancy between Expectations and Experiences after Prostate Cancer Treatment: A Dutch Multicenter Study
Objectives: To evaluate possible discrepancies between patients’ expectations concerning sexual side effects related to prostate cancer (PCa) treatment, based on the obtained information prior to treatment...
August 19, 2019
How might financial pressures have impacted brachytherapy? A proposed narrative to explain the declines in cervical and prostate brachytherapy utilization
Rates of brachytherapy administration in the United States have declined for both cervical and prostate cancers, and we argue that the available facts suggest financial considerations are a major contributor to this issue...
July 30, 2019
Brachytherapy: An overview for clinicians
Brachytherapy is a specific form of radiotherapy consisting of the precise placement of radioactive sources directly into or next to the tumor. This technique is indicated for patients affected by various types of cancers...
July 01, 2019
125I low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy and radical prostatectomy in patients with prostate cancer
Radical prostatectomy (RP) and low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy (LDR) are two widely used treatment options for patients with T1c-T3a prostate cancer. In the present study, the efficacy of the two treatments was compared...
June 18, 2019
Long-term efficacy and urological toxicity of low-dose-rate brachytherapy (LDR-BT) as monotherapy in localized prostate cancer
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence of late severe (≥Grade 3) urinary toxicity and the long-term efficacy after low-dose-rate brachytherapy (LDR-BT) in patients with localized prostate cancer (PCa)...
June 18, 2019
Prospective four years of evaluation of erectile function after low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy using baseline IIEF-5 > 16
Purpose: Prostate cancer (CaP) is the second most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of death from cancer in men in the world [1]. Nowadays, many treatment options available are responsible for side effects, mainly urinary and sexual...
June 13, 2019
Long-Term Oncologic Outcomes of Low Dose Rate Brachytherapy Compared to Hypofractionated External Beam Radiotherapy for Intermediate Risk Prostate Cancer
Purpose: Low dose-rate brachytherapy (LDR) and hypofractionated external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) are accepted standard treatments in the setting of intermediate-risk (IR) prostate cancer...
June 13, 2019
Quality of Life after Prostate Cancer Treatment Comparison between Robot Assisted Radical Prostatectomy and Brachytherapy
Purpose: Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) after the treatment must be one of the most important factor for the prostate cancer (PCa) patients for deciding treatment options. Objective of this study is to compare HRQOL of patients who underwent mono treatment of permanent seed implant brachytherapy...
June 13, 2019
Outcomes and Toxicity Following Salvage Low-Dose-Rate Brachytherapy for Recurrent Prostate Cancer after Radiation Therapy
Purpose: Salvage low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy is a viable treatment option for patients with locally recurrent prostate cancer following primary radiation therapy. Here we report our single institution experience outcomes and toxicity when utilizing LDR in the salvage brachytherapy...
June 13, 2019
10 Year Follow-Up of a Large, Single Institution Prospective Low Dose Rate Prostate Cancer Brachytherapy Series: The Chicago Experience
Purpose: Beginning in 1997, a dedicated prostate brachytherapy center initiated a prospective data collection intended to evaluate outcomes following low dose rate brachytherapy. The goal of this report is to estimate 10-year biochemical outcomes in a large, closely followed prospective series...
June 13, 2019
Survival Outcomes and Toxicity of Brachytherapy (BT) versus External Beam (EBRT) Boost in the Treatment of Localized Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Purpose: High radiation doses may be delivered to the prostate with EBRT or BT. Both low (LDR)- and high dose-rate (HDR) BT have been used as means of dose escalation in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing EBRT to BT boost...
June 13, 2019
Long-Term Outcome of I-125 Seeds Therapy for High-Risk Prostate Cancer Patients: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis
Purpose: The aims of this study is to report long-term outcome of patients treated with I125 low-dose-rate brachytherapy (LDR-BT) for high-risk prostate cancer with a minimum five years follow-up after the LDR-BT using a propensity score-matched analysis...
May 29, 2019
Biochemical outcomes and predictive factors by risk group after permanent iodine-125 seed implantation: Prospective cohort study in 2,316 patients
Purpose: To evaluate the biochemical freedom from failure (bFFF) by risk group and treatment modality and the predictive factors of bFFF by risk group in patients with prostate cancer undergoing permanent seed implantation (PI) with or without external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) in a nationwide prospective cohort study (Japanese Prostate Cancer Outcome Study of Permanent Iodine-125 [I-125] Seed Implantation)...
May 06, 2019
Role of novel imaging in the management of prostate cancer
This review summarizes novel imaging in the management of prostate cancer including multiparametric MRI, PET-CT scans with different radiotracers including 11C-acetate, 11C-choline, 18F-choline, 18F sodium fluoride, prostate-specific membrane antigen, and anti-1-amino-3-[18F] fluorocyclobutane-1-carboxylic acid (fluciclovine)...
May 03, 2019
The current state of randomized clinical trial evidence for prostate brachytherapy
Interstitial brachytherapy is one of several curative therapeutic options for the treatment of localized prostate cancer. In this review, we summarize all available randomized data to support the optimal use of prostate brachytherapy...
May 02, 2019
‘Fake News’ in urology: evaluating the accuracy of articles shared on social media in genitourinary malignancies
Objectives: To evaluate the accuracy of the most popular articles on social media platforms pertaining to genitourinary malignancies, and to identify the prevalence of misinformation available to patients...
April 03, 2019
Single-fraction brachytherapy as monotherapy for early-stage prostate cancer: The UCSF experience
Purpose: High-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy as monotherapy is an effective treatment option for localized prostate cancer, but experience with single-fraction brachytherapy is limited by studies with small sample size. We report a large single-institution experience with single-fraction HDR brachytherapy as monotherapy for early-stage prostate cancer...
March 16, 2019
Permanent prostate brachytherapy is safe in men with severe baseline lower urinary tract symptoms
Purpose: To evaluate the long-term urinary outcomes of men with severe pretreatment lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) treated with permanent prostate brachytherapy (PPB) ± external beam radiation therapy for localized prostate cancer...
March 07, 2019
Reducing seed migration to near zero with stranded-seed implants: Comparison of seed migration rates to the chest in 1000 permanent prostate brachytherapy patients undergoing implants with loose or stranded seeds
Purpose: Pulmonary seed emboli to the chest may occur after permanent prostate brachytherapy (PPB). The purpose of this study is to analyze factors associated with seed migration to the chest in a large series of PPB patients from a single institution undergoing implant with either loose seeds (LS), mixed loose and stranded seeds (MS), or exclusively stranded seeds in an absorbable vicryl suture (VS)...
February 28, 2019
Current state of interventional radiotherapy (brachytherapy) education in Italy: results of the INTERACTS survey
Purpose: Rapid evolution and improvement of technology in radiation oncology and the complexity of each area of radiotherapy (RT) practice determined the need for an adequate and flexible practical training system. In the field of interventional radiotherapy (brachytherapy – BT), a decline in BT utilization was detected in the 1990’s, essentially due to technological improvement of external beam RT...
February 14, 2019
High Dose Rate Brachytherapy versus Low Dose Rate Brachytherapy for the Treatment of Prostate Cancer: A Review of Clinical Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Canadian adults with prostates and the fourth most common cancer across all Canadians.1 In 2017, there were an estimated 21,300 new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in Canada and there were an estimated 4,100 deaths...
February 01, 2019
Combined-modality 125J-seed-brachytherapy, external beam radiation and androgen deprivation therapy of unfavorable-risk prostate cancer: report of outcomes and side-effects
Purpose: To analyze outcomes and complication rates in an unselected cohort of men with unfavorable (NCCN intermediate and high-risk) PCa receiving combined-modality radiation treatment (CRT)...
January 16, 2019
Impact of a dominant intraprostatic lesion (DIL) boost defined by sextant biopsy in permanent I-125 prostate implants on biochemical disease free survival (bDFS) and toxicity outcomes
Background and purpose: To compare bDFS and toxicity outcomes in a population of intermediate risk prostate cancer patients treated using I-125 LDR brachytherapy with or without DIL boost based on multiple core biopsy maps...
January 10, 2019
Surgery Versus Radiation for High-risk Prostate Cancer: The Fight Continues. But Is It Time To Call a Draw and Reach Consensus?
Management of high-risk prostate cancer (PC) is one of the most contentious issues that urologists face. Level 1 evidence shows that adding external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) improves survival outcomes in high-risk and locally advanced PC [1]...
January 09, 2019
Long-term oncological and functional outcomes support use of low-dose-rate brachytherapy with or without external beam radiation in young men (≤60 years) with localized prostate cancer
PURPOSE: To evaluate the oncological and functional outcomes of young men treated with low-dose-rate brachytherapy (BT) for prostate cancer (PCa)...
January 09, 2019
A comparative analysis of overall survival between high-dose-rate and low-dose-rate brachytherapy boosts for unfavorable-risk prostate cancer
Purpose: External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) with low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy boost has been associated with improved biochemical progression–free survival and overall survival (OS) compared with dose-escalated EBRT (DE-EBRT) alone for unfavorable-risk prostate cancer...
November 15, 2018
Disadvantageous Socioeconomic Position at Specific Life Periods May Contribute to Prostate Cancer Risk and Aggressiveness
Background: Previous studies on socioeconomic position (SEP) and risk of prostate cancer (PCa) have produced contradictory results. Most measured SEP only once during the individuals' life span. The aim of the study was to identify life course models that describe best the relationship between SEP measured...
November 08, 2018
Combined Low Dose Rate Brachytherapy and External Beam Radiation Therapy for Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer
Introduction: This is a retrospective study conducted to report the tumor control and late toxicity outcomes of patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer undergoing combination external beam radiation therapy and low dose rate brachytherapy (LDR-PB)...
November 01, 2018
Brachytherapy Improves 10-year Overall Survival Compared to Prostatectomy Alone in Young Men (≤60) with Low- and Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer: An NCDB Analysis
Purpose/Objective(s): The treatment of prostate cancer, weather with prostatectomy, radiation therapy, or active surveillance varies based on risk factors including Gleason score (GS), PSA value and T staging. There is controversy regarding the impact of age on treatment modality choice for those with locally advanced prostate cancer despite the current risk stratification...
October 31, 2018
Predicting pubic arch interference in permanent prostate brachytherapy based on the specific parameters derived from nuclear magnetic resonance imaging
Purpose: The aim of this study was to establish a more reliable method to predict pubic arch interference (PAI) before permanent prostate brachytherapy...
October 23, 2018
Patient-reported data confirms efficacy of brachytherapy alone in intermediate risk prostate cancer
Oncology trial RTOG 0232 comparing a combined treatment of external beam therapy and brachytherapy (EBT+B) to transperineal interstitial permanent brachytherapy (B) alone indicate a significantly different clinician and patient-reported late toxicity profile between arms despite similarities in progression-free survival results...
October 09, 2018
A Prospective Phase II Trial of Trans-perineal Ultrasound-Guided Brachytherapy for Locally Recurrent Prostate Cancer after External Beam Radiotherapy (NRG Oncology/RTOG -0526)
Purpose: Only retrospective data is available for low dose rate (LDR) salvage prostate brachytherapy for local recurrence after external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). The primary objective of this prospective Phase II trial (NCT00450411) was to evaluate late gastrointestinal and genitourinary adverse events (AEs) after salvage LDR brachytherapy...
October 04, 2018
Permanent prostate brachytherapy monotherapy with I-125 for low- and intermediate-risk prostate cancer: Outcomes in 974 patients
Purpose: To report outcomes of patients undergoing low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy and investigate factors associated with biochemical failure and survival...
September 25, 2018
Patient-reported health-related quality of life outcomes after HDR brachytherapy between small (<60 cc) and large (≥60 cc) prostate glands
PURPOSE: Patients with large prostate glands are underrepresented in clinical trials incorporating brachytherapy due to concerns for excessive toxicity. We sought to compare health-related quality of life (HRQOL) outcomes between small (<60 cc) and large (≥60 cc) prostates treated with high-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDR-B)...
September 20, 2018
Selection of patients who would not require long-term prostate-specific antigen monitoring after low-dose-rate brachytherapy
Purpose: To identify patients at extremely low risk of biochemical recurrence (BCR) of prostate cancer after low-dose-rate brachytherapy (LDR-BT) to determine when prostate-specific antigen (PSA) monitoring can be stopped...
September 11, 2018
Inferring postimplant dose distribution of salvage permanent prostate implant (PPI) after primary PPI on CT images
Purpose: To evaluate the dose distribution of additional radioactive seeds implanted during salvage permanent prostate implant (sPPI) after a primary permanent prostate implant (pPPI)...
September 11, 2018
Declining brachytherapy utilization for high-risk prostate cancer—Can clinical pathways reverse the trend?
PURPOSE: Although external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) plus a brachytherapy boost (BB) offers a 20% improvement in biochemical progression-free survival compared with dose-escalated EBRT alone for men with intermediate and high-risk prostate cancer, population studies show a concerning decline in BB utilization...
August 31, 2018
Five-year effectiveness of low-dose-rate brachytherapy: comparisons with nomogram predictions in patients with non-metastatic prostate cancer presenting significant control of intra- and periprostatic disease
Purpose: To assess the effectiveness of low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy in patients with localized prostate cancer and to compare the outcome with predictions from Kattan and Partin nomograms at 60 months after seed implantation...
August 29, 2018
Prostate-specific antigen bounce in patients treated before 60 years old by iodine 125 brachytherapy for prostate cancer is frequent and not a prognostic factor
PURPOSE: The only prognostic factor of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) bounce in prostate cancer found in several studies is young age but has never been specifically studied in this subset of patients for long-term results. Bounce characteristics, histological, clinical, and dosimetric data in young patients were analyzed, as well as their impact on toxicity and survival...
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GEC-ESTRO Handbook of Brachytherapy:
ABS Brachytherapy Guidelines and Consensus Statements:
