Oncologists used real-time system to plant ’seeds’ against cancer

Radiation oncologists and urologists at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson and  have experimented a real-time system to implant radiation-emitting seeds in prostate cancer sufferers.

For treating localized, low-risk prostate cancer confined to the prostate patients have two options: surgery or radiation therapy.  Brachytherapy has been found very effective and safe, providing a good alternative to surgical removal of the prostate. At the same time this procedure reduce the risk of certain long-term side effects, such incontinence and impotence.

During their real-time experiment, researchers succeeded in placing tiny pellets – seeds – about the size of a grain of rice round over the prostate, giving off radiation field that travels only a few millimeters to kill nearby cancer cells. The seeds are carefully placed inside the cancerous tissue and positioned to efficiently attack the cancer