[Interstitial implant with Au198 in prostatic cancer]

Since 1983 to 1987, 13 patients with prostate cancer have been treated. The average age was 64.5 years. All of them were staged according to Whitmore and Jewett systems. Patients with B1, B2, C1 and C2 staging were included in this work. To evaluate the regional nodes, the patients underwent pelvic lymphadenectomy. Interstitial Au198 was performed at the time of operation. The interstitial irradiation delivered to the prostate was of 40 Gy and it was supplemented with CO60 (external beam therapy) till an equivalent of 60 Gy. When the lymphatic nodes were involved, the whole pelvic, ganglionic chain was irradiated. The results achieved with combined treatment of Au198 plus external beam therapy were the reduction of the prostate size, the disappearance of urinary symptoms and the complementary evaluation was normal for the 13 patients. Three out of 11 patients showed bone metastases in the follow up. One of them had also local relapse. Complications associated to radiotherapy were mild to moderate. Only one of the patients required diverting colostomy but he had suffered from rectal disease before radiotherapy. The results achieved until the close of this first report can be considered satisfactory if tumor regression and local control are taken into account, but the average time of follow up is too short to evaluate the survival rate.