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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Prostate Cancer / August 2006gold pellets plus radiation
a good friend has just begun a procedure in which he says that three gold pellets were inserted in his prostate and he will follow up with daily 15 minute radiation sessions for 5-7 weeks. he claims the pellets are not radioactive iodine (not seeding) and that this is possibly a new procedure. sounds bizarre to me as i too have explored various options related to the prostate and have no clue what he is referring to. he says it is not standard radiation therapy. he also has a bit of dementia so take what he says with a grain of salt. does anyone know what type of procedure he is referring to? thanks jay > a good friend has just begun a procedure in which he says that three > gold pellets were inserted in his prostate and he will follow up with [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > thanks > jay Hi Jay...These gold pellets are used as markers in an attempt to more reproducibly register the radiation and take into account prostate movement...Best wishes and good health, ron ron i assume therefore that the possible side effects normally connected with radiation therapy would still be applicable in this procedure. is that correct? jay > > a good friend has just begun a procedure in which he says that three > > gold pellets were inserted in his prostate and he will follow up with [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > reproducibly register the radiation and take into account prostate > movement...Best wishes and good health, ron jay...that's my understanding...ron > ron > i assume therefore that the possible side effects normally connected [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > reproducibly register the radiation and take into account prostate > > movement...Best wishes and good health, ron > ron > i assume therefore that the possible side effects normally connected > with radiation therapy would still be applicable in this procedure. is > that correct? > jay Yes. The gold pellets do not themselves radiate and have no effect one way or the other on side effects. They are there to reveal the exact position of the prostate (which can shift slightly from day to day) on xrays and make it easy for the technicians to exactly locate the prostate for the next round of radiation. The radiation delivered will be one of the normal external beam types, with the normal side effects. As I understand it, the use of gold pellets for targetting is not common, but is a well accepted practice. I would think it can only improve the aiming, and therefore the effectiveness, of the radiation he receives. Alan Jay wrote: > a good friend has just begun a procedure in which he says that three > gold pellets were inserted in his prostate and he will follow up with > daily 15 minute radiation sessions for 5-7 weeks. (editted) does > anyone know what type of procedure he is referring to? Google CYBERKNIFE for an explanation. Basically, the pellets are used by the radiation machine to locate the prostate and compensate for body movement during a patient's normal breathing. This prevents doseage of radiation into adjacent body parts. CyberKnife itself is a 2-hour daily procedure for a week, so it appears that others have adopted the idea for the 15-minute procedure. |
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