Washington, July 3 (ANI): Prostate cancer patients, who are treated with brachytherapy and remain free of disease for at least five years post treatment, are 97pct less likely to have a recurrence, say researchers at The Mount Sinai Medical Centre.

Brachytherapy is the placement of radioactive sources in or just next to a tumour either permanently or temporarily, depending upon the cancer.

During the study, the researchers followed 742 prostate cancer patients who had been treated with brachytherapy alone, brachytherapy and hormonal therapy, or combined brachytherapy and external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) between 1991 and 2002.

They found that none of the patients had a cancer recurrence during their first five years post-treatment.

They found that the PSA level taken at five years was an indicator of how well a patient would do in the future, and the overall chance of being cancer free at 10 years was 97 percent.

“Our data have indicated that improvements in treatment are continuing and that these will continue to have an effect on prostate brachytherapy data for years to come,” said Dr. Richard Stock, lead author of the study and chairman of radiation oncology at The Mount Sinai Medical Centre.

“Late failure rates will continue to decrease, making prostate brachytherapy alone and combined with hormonal therapy and/or EBRT an increasingly attractive treatment option,” he added.

The study appears in International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics. (ANI)