Ultrasound-guided implantation techniques in treatment of prostate cancer

Percutaneous ultrasound-guided interstitial radiotherapy is an attractive and elegant technique for the administration of high-dose local radiotherapy to the prostate. The complications of seed implantation are those associated with the radiation rather than with the technique of implantation. However, radiotherapy has not provided impressive local control of the disease or prolonged survival. The poor disease control was not attributed to poor seed placement, but rather to the inadequacy of 125I in controlling the cancer. The essence of nonsurgical treatment for prostate cancer is the use of effective imaging. Experience in the field of minimally invasive surgery has shown that ultrasound is the ideal imaging system for targeting treatments because of its ease of use and the absence of adverse effects. As the newer techniques of implantation come to be accepted, it is hoped that the complications of rectal and bladder radiation injury will decrease and the therapeutic benefits increase. The clinical trials required to define the precise role of each of the modalities of treatment must take nodal staging into account and must be compared with the gold standard of radical prostatectomy in the treatment of early confined disease.