Main Navigation Links
New radiation treatment to combat prostate cancer now introduced at Wellington Hospital
Clinicians at Wellington Hospital have begun using a specialised form of radiation therapy to treat patients who have prostate cancer.
The most common ways of treating prostate cancer are surgery or external beam radiation therapy – where beams of radiation are aimed at the tumour from outside the body.
The technique, known as “High Dose Rate Brachytherapy” (or HDR Brachytherapy), is an advanced form of radiotherapy which involves the placement of a set of small plastic tubes directly into the prostate. Using these it is possible to irradiate the prostate from inside using a single highly radioactive source.
Normally 7 ½ weeks of radiotherapy is needed to treat prostate cancer, whereas when given in combination with HDR brachytherapy this can be reduced to 4½ weeks.
“It’s a technique which can potentially produce significant benefits for men with locally advanced prostate cancer,” says Dr John Violet – a radiation oncologist at Wellington Hospital who is part of a fully trained team delivering HDR Brachytherapy treatment.
“Higher doses of radiation are known to be more effective at treating prostate tumours and this technique allows very high doses of radiation to be delivered very precisely to the prostate gland over a short period of time.
“Since the source is placed directly in the prostate there is less irradiation of surrounding normal tissues than with external beam radiotherapy, reducing side effects. It is also thought that delivering treatment in this way, namely using very high doses of radiation over a short period of time, may be a more effective way of killing prostate cancer,” Dr Violet said.
Wellington Hospital has now become only the second hospital in New Zealand (after Waikato) to use HDR Brachytherapy to treat prostate cancer.
The team have already successfully treated a number of men with this new technique and will provide a service for patients in the lower North Island and the whole of the South Island.
“The HDR Brachytherapy machine currently shares a radiation bunker with one of the three Linacs used for external beam irradiation – so it’s only available half the time. However work is currently underway on building a new HDR suite which will be dedicated to HDR Brachytherapy. Once this is competed in early 2010 this will increase the volume of patients who can be treated,” Dr. Carol Johnson, Clinical Leader, said.
Media contacts:
Michael Tull
027 230 9571
Raylene Bateman
027 55 88 886